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.  JOHN  WRNTU'ORTJ/.' 


EARLY  CHICAGO. 

A    LECTURE, 

DELIVERED  BEFORE         * 

THE    SUNDAY    LECTURE    SOCIETY, 

A  T  McCORMICK  HALL, 

ON   SUNDAY  AFTERNOON,  MAY  7x11,  1876, 

BY 

HON.  JOHN  WENTWORTH,    - 

LATE  EDITOR,  PUBLISHER  AND  PROPRIETOR  OF  THE  "CHICAGO 
DEMOCRAT,"  THE  FIRST  CORPORATION  NEWSPAPER; 

MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS    FOR  THE   CHICAGO 

DISTRICT  FOR  TWELVE  YEARS;  TWO  TERMS  MAYOR: 

AND  A  SETTLER  OF  1836. 


CHICAGO: 

FERGUS    PRINTING    COMPANY, 

244-8   ILLINOIS   STREET. 
1876. 


EARLY  CHICAGO. 


One  year  ago,  I  gave  a  lecture  at  this  place,  as  I  then 
stated  to  you,  "with  a  view  of  exciting  among  our  people 
a  .spirit  of  historical  research  which  would  result  in  recov- 
ering lost  newspapers  and  documents,  and  placing  upon 
record  the  experiences  of  our  early  settlers."  I  had  no 
ambition  to  figure  as  a  lecturer,  or  as  a  historian.  I  waited 
until  the  regular  lecture  course  was  finished.  The  pro- 
ceeds were  given  with  pleasure* to  the  Committee  for  the 
employment  of  men  more  at  home  in  the  lecture  field,  as 
the  proceeds  of  this  lecture  will  be, — such  men  as  pass  six 
months  in  preparing  one,  two,  or  three  lectures,  and  pass 
the  next  six  months  in  delivering  them.  As  this  is  their 
sole  means  of  living,  it  is  right  that  they  should  be  well 
paid  for  them;  and  it  is  one  of  the  noble  objects  of  this 
Association  to  furnish  you,  at  an  hour  when  you  have  no 
worldly  pursuits  nor  religious  entertainments,  for  ten  cents, 
what  other  people  on  a  week-day  pay  from  fifty  cents  to 
a  dollar  for. 

I  can  think  of  no  other  object  that  would  have  brought 
me  before  you  with  a  written  lecture.  I  felt  that  the  duty 
peculiarly  devolved  upon  me,  and  I  performed  it  with 
pleasure.  There  are  scarcely  half  a  dozen  persons,  habit- 
uated to  public  speaking,  who  were  here  before  the  city 
was  incorporated.  I  was  sole  conductor  of  a  public  press 
for  twenty-five  years  lacking  a  few  months.  It  seemed 
proper  that  I  should  lead  off  in  this  important  matter. 

The  Chicago  Democrat  was  commenced  on  the  26th  of 
November,  1833,  by  the  late  John  Calhoun,  whose  widow 
now  resides  in  this  city.  Augustine  D.  Taylor,  now  living 
in  this  city,  saw  the  press  landed;  and  Walter  Kimball, 
now  living  in  this- city,  was  a  visitor  in  the  office,  and  saw 
the  first  number  printed.  That  paper  fell  into  my  hands 
in  November,  1836,  and  contained  not  only  a  history  of 
current  events,  but  also  a  vast  amount  of  information 
touching  the  early  history  of  the  entire  Northwest.  It  is  a 


4  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

sad  reflection  that  the  same  fire  which  swept  away  my  files., 
also  swept  away  those  of  everyone  else,  and  all  our  public 
records.  But  there  are  copies  of  the  Chicago  Democrat 
scattered  all  over  the  Northwest,  as  well  as  of  other  papers 
and  documents  that  will  be  of  service  in  restoring  our  lost 
history.  No  person  should  destroy  any  papers  or  docu- 
ments of  a  date  prior  to  the  fire.  If  there  is  no  one  who 
wants  them,  let  them  be  sent  to  me,  and  1  will  take  care 
of  them  until  our  Chicago  Historical  Society  becomes 
reorganized.  Our  old  settlers  are  fast  passing  away. 
Some  of  the  few  remaining  have  very  retentive  memories. 
Let  them  not  be  discouraged  because  they  do  not  remem- 
ber dates.  It  is  events  that  we  want;  and  by  comparing 
them  with  other  events,  the  dates  of  which  we  know,  we 
can  in  time  obtain  the  exact  dates  of  all  of  them.  While 
so  many  of  our  old  settlers  have  passed  away,  there  yet 
may  be  remaining  among  their  effects  old  papers  whose 
value  their  legal  representatives  do  not  appreciate.  Many 
old  packages  have  been  given  to  me,  with  the  remark  that 
they  did  not  see  of  what  use  they  could  be  to  me.  One 
widow  sent  me  some  pieces  of  newspapers,  which  the 
mice  had  kindly  spared,  with  the  remark  that  she  was- 
ashamed  to  be  sending  such  old  trash  to  any  one ;  but  from 
them  facts  enough  were  gathered  to  save  another  widow 
from  being  swindled  out  of  her  homestead.  When  I  lec- 
tured before,  it  was  a  matter  of  dispute  what  was  the  name 
of  the  first  steamboat  that  ever  came  to  Chicago,  and  who 
was  the  person  in  command.  She  came  to  bring  the 
troops  for  the  Black  Hawk  War  in  1832,  and  brought  the 
cholera  with  them.  All  that  was  known  for  a  certainty 
was  the  place  where  they  dug  the  pit  into  which  they  most 
unceremoniously  plunged  the  dead  bodies.  That  was 
remembered  because  it  was  the  site  of  the  old  American 
Temperance  House,  northwest  corner  of  Lake  street  and 
Wabash  avenue;  and  many  old  settlers  remembered  that 
from  the  fact  that  they  always  passed  by  the  Temperance 
House  on  the  other  side,  and  so  could  read  the  sign.  The 
river  and  lake  water,  which  we  had  to  drink  in  those  days, 
was  considered  unhealthy.  I  made  a  statement  as  to  the 
name  of  that  boat,  based  upon  what  I  considered  the  best 
authority.  But  when  I  had  finished,  a  gentleman  came 
upon  the  stage  and  gave  me  another  name,  claiming  that 
he  helped  fit  out  the  very  vessel  at  Cleveland,  and  I 
changed  my  manuscript  to  correspond.  But  some  of  the 
reporters  published  the  statement  as  I  delivered  it,  and 


BY    HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  5 

thus  two  statements  were  before  the  public  as  given  by  me. 
Thus  different  persons,  anxious  to  assist  me  in  reestablish- 
ing the  landmarks  of  history,  had  an  opportunity,  by  quot- 
ing the  one  statement  to  provoke  discussion  by  insisting 
that  the  other  statement  was  true,  when  they  really  did  not 
know  any  more  about  the  matter  than  I  did,  and  had  per- 
haps consulted  only  one  authority,  when  I  had  previously 
consulted  many.  But  a  lady,  in  looking  over  her  old 
papers,  found,  where  she  least  expected  it,  a  Chicago  Dem- 
ocrat dated  March  14,  1861,  containing  a  letter  from  Capt. 
A.  Walker,  giving  a  history  of  the  whole  expedition,  show- 
Ing  that  both  statements  were  correct.  The  United  States 
Government  chartered  four  steamers  to  bring  troops  and 
supplies  to  Chicago,  and  their  names  were  the  Superior, 
Henry  Clay,  William  Penn,  and  Sheldon  Thompson;  but 
the  Superior  and  Henry  Clay  were  sent  back  when  the 
cholera  broke  out  on  board.  Capt.  Walker  says,  that  when 
he  arrived  at  Chicago,  in  July,  1832,  there  were  but  five 
dwelling-houses  here,  three  of  which  were  made  of  logs. 
There  are  other  old  newspapers  yet  to  be  found  settling 
questions  equally  as  interesting. 

All  must  admit,  that  there  has  been  more  said  about  the 
history  of  Chicago,  and  more  important  publications  made, 
the  past  year  than  ever  before.  Booksellers  inform  me 
that  they  have  had  within  the  past  year,  a  greater  demand 
than  in  all  time  before  for  all  works  appertaining  to  the 
history  of  the  Northwest,  and  that  they  have  had,  all  the 
while,  standing  orders  for  such  works  as  are  out  of  print. 
And  it  is  to  encourage  a  still  further  research  that  I  address 
you  to-day.  And,  if  the  result  of  this  year's  researches  is 
not  satisfactory,  I  shall  feel  myself  in  duty  bound  to  ad- 
dress you  again  in  a  year  from  this  time.  Many  aged 
settlers  have  thanked  me  for  bringing  them  into  a  higher 
appreciation.  One  octogenarian  lady  informs  me  that, 
for  the  past  fifteen  years,  when  any  young  company  came 
to  the  house,  she  was  expected  to  leave  the  room.  After 
my  lecture,  -she  said  she  saw  a  gentleman  approaching  the 
house,  and  she  left  the  room  as  usual.  But  soon  her 
granddaughter  came  out  and  said,  "It  is  you  he  wants/' 
And  this  was  the  first  gentleman  caller  she  had  had  for 
fifteen  years.  When  she  entered  the  room,  and  he  told 
her  he  wanted  to  inquire  about  early  Chicago,  she  felt  as 
if  her  youth  had  come  again,  and  she  told  the  others  that 
it  was  their  time  to  leave  the  room.  She  said,  "He  has 
been  to  see  me  six  times,  and  has  printed  nearly  all  I  said. 


6  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

and  there  is  not  another  member  of  our  large  family  who 
has  ever  said  a  word  that  was  thought  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  be  printed;  and  now  I  am  thinking  over  what  I 
know  about  early  Chicago,  and  letting  the  newspapers  have 
it."  She  observed  with  great  force  that  the  young  folks  were 
constantly  asking  her  how  she  used  to  get  along  amid  early 
privations,  and  she  insisted  that,  if  I  ever  lectured  again,  I 
should  assert  that  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago  were  the 
happiest  people  in  the  world,  as  I  believe  they  were.  But 
a  strict  regard  for  the  real  historical  purposes  of  this  lec- 
ture will  permit  me  to  allude  only  incidentally  to  our  early 
sources  of  entertainment. 

VYe  are  apt  to  speak  of  Chicago  as  a  new  city.  But  it  is- 
not  so,  compared  with  the  great  mass  of  other  cities  in  the 
United  States.  Take  out  Detroit,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis, 
and  New  Orleans,  and  what  is  there  older,  in  the  date  of 
its  incorporation,  in  the  West,  extending  to  the  Pacific? 
But  when  our  city  was  organized  we  had  no  Pacific  posses- 
sions, save  Oregon  Territory,  which  we  then  owned  in  com- 
mon with  Great  Britain.  The  future  historian  of  America 
will  not,  however,  take  into  consideration  the  date  of  our 
incorporation.  The  ancient  Romans  were  in  the  habit  of 
dating  events  from  the  foundation  of  their  city.  But  "  Urbs 
condita"  or  "  Chicago  condita"  will  never  be  a  reckoning 
point  in  our  city's  history.  Even  in  this  assembly,  there  are 
not  as  many  who  know  in  what  year  our  city  was  incor- 
porated as  in  one  of  our  public  schools  there  are  children 
who  can  spell  Melchisedec,  notwithstanding  modern  politic- 
ians have  kicked  from  the  public  schools  the  Book  that 
contained  the  eighth  commandment. 

From  Washington's  inauguration,  in  1789,  to  Chicago's 
first  Mayor's  inauguration,  in  1837,  we  have  but  forty-eight 
years,  a  period  of  time  that  the  future  historian  of  America, 
when  speaking  of  Chicago,  will  not  notice.  But  a  resident 
of  Chicago  was  not  elected  to  Congress  until  1843,  and 
yet  he  became  associated  not  only  with  men  prominent 
under  every  Administration  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, and  many  of  them  born  before  the  inauguration  of 
Washington,  but  with  some  born  even  before  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  two,  at  least,  before  the  tea  was 
thrown  overboard  in  Boston  harbor.  John  Quincy  Adams 
was  born  in  1767,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  tell  us  that 
among  his  earliest  recollections  was  that  of  hearing  the  re- 
port of  the  guns  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Benjamin 
Tappan,  Senator  from  Ohio,  was  born  in  1773.  Then  there 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  7 

was  Henry  Clay,  Secretary  of  State  while  John  Quincy 
Adams  was  President,  United  States  Senator  as  early  as 
1806,  Speaker  of  the  House  in  1811,  born  in  1777,  nine 
months  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  one 
who  could  collect  a  larger  crowd  and  disperse  it  quicker 
and  in  better  humor  than  any  other  man  who  ever  lived  in 
America.  I  shall  never  forget  my  last  interview  with 
Henry  Clay,  and  its  description  is "  appropriate  to  the  his- 
tory of  Chicago.  Our  harbor  was  suffering  for  appropria- 
tions. President  Polk  had  vetoed  them  all.  A  change  of 
dynasties  had  been  effected.  Millard  Fillmore  was  the 
acting  President,  and  he  was  a  warm  friend  of  our  harbor. 
It  was  in  the  spring  of  1851.  The  Harbor  bill  had  passed 
the  House,  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate  at  a  late  day,  and 
the  controlling  spirits  had  managed  to  keep  it  back  until  a 
still  later  day.  The  Southern  Senators,  under  the  lead  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  spoke  against  time,  declaring  the  bill 
unconstitutional.  Clay  did  all  that  man  could  do  for  us, 
but  in  vain.  Our  bill  was  talked  to  death.  Clay  came  on 
with  us  to  New  York  City,  to  take  a  steamer  for  New 
Orleans.  As  the  vessel  was  about  to  sail,  we  went  on 
board  to  take  our  leave  of  him,  and  we  all  expressed  a  hope 
that  the  next  time  he  returned  home  he  would  go  around 
by  the  lakes.  He  replied,  "  I  never  go  where  the  Consti- 
tution does  not  go.  Hence  I  must  travel  by  salt  water. 
Make  your  lakes  Constitutional.  Keep  up  the  war  until 
your  lake  harbors  get  their  deserved  appropriations,  and 
then  I  will  come  out  and  see  you.''  We  finally  got  the 
Constitution  out  here,  but  not  until  after  Henry  Clay  had 
paid  the  debt  of  nature. 

Then  there  was  John  C.  Calhoun,  Yice-President  while 
John  Quincy  Adams  was  President  in  1825  ;  a  member  of 
Congress  in  1811  ;  Secretary  of  War  when  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  our  fort  was  completed  in  1817  ;  born  in  1782,  the 
year  before  Great  Britain  acknowledged  our  independence. 
He  said  his  name  came  once  very  nearly  being  associated 
with  Chicago,  as  the  new  fort  had  been  completed  while  he 
was  Secretary  of  War,  and  it  was  suggested  that  it  be  called 
Fort  Calhoun.  But  he  did  not  think  it  right  to  change  the 
old  name  which  had  been  given  in  honor  of  Gen.  Henry 
Dearborn,  who  was  Secretary  of  War  when  the  first  fort 
was  built,  in  1804.  Official  documents  tell  us  that,  in 
1803,  Capt.  John  Whistler,  then  a  Lieutenant  at  Detroit, 
was  ordered  here  to  build  the  fort,  that  his  troops  came  by 
land,  and  that  he,  with  his  family  and  his  supplies,  came 


8  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

round  by  the  lakes  in  the  United  States  schooner  Tracy, 
with  Dorr  for  Master.  This  probably  was  the  first  sail- 
vessel  that  ever  came  to  Chicago.  I  can  think  of  no  busi- 
ness that  could  have  brought  one  here  before.  This  Capt. 
John  Whistler  was  father  of  Col.  William  Whistler,  who 
died  in  1863,  and  was  so  favorably  known  by  our  early 
settlers,  and  who  was  father-in-law  of  the  late  Robert  A. 
Kinzie,  of  this  city. 

Besides,  there  was  Judge  William  Wilkins,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, born  in  1779;  Daniel  Webster,  of  Massachusetts, 
born  in  1782  ;  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  born  in 
1786;  and  Judge  Levi  Woodbury,  of  New  Hampshire, 
born  in  1789. 

Then  there  were  three  men  whose  names  are  identified 
with  the  history  of  the  West.  There  was  Lewis  Cass,  born 
in  1782,  appointed,  in  1813,  Governor  of  the  Northwestern 
Territory,  then  embracing  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  and  all  west.  And  William  Woodbridge,  born 
in  1780,  appointed  in  1814,  Secretary  of  the  same  Territory. 
These  gentlemen  where  walking  histories  of  the  Northwest. 
Then  there  was  Thomas  H.  Benton,  born  in  1782,  Senator 
when  Missouri  was  admitted  in  1821,  who  made  his  first 
trips  to  Washington  on  horseback.  Add  his  knowledge  to 
that  of  Messrs.  Woodbridge  and  Cass,  and  we  have  a  com- 
plete history  of  the  entire  West.  Many  now  before  me 
will  remember  the  patriotic  lecture  he  delivered  here  in  the 
spring  of  1857,  upon  the  approaching  crisis  to  this  country, 
about  a  year  before  his  death,  probably  the  last  lecture  of 
his  life.  Nor  should  I  fail  to  mention  Gen.  Henry  Dodge, 
the  Anthony  Wayne  of  his  period,  born  also  in  1782,  one 
of  the  first  Senators  from  Wisconsin. 

A  single  member  of  Congress,  and  the  first  one  elected 
from  Chicago,  was  associated  in  Congress  with  two  mem- 
bers who  served  in  President  Monroe's  Cabinet,  one  in 
President  J.  Q.  Adams',  three  in  President  Jackson's,  one 
in  President  Van  Buren's,  five  in  President  Harrison's,  four 
in  President  Tyler's,  four  in  President  Polk's,  four  in  Presi- 
dent Taylor's,  seven  in  President  Fillmore's,  four  in  Presi- 
dent Pierce's,  five  in  President  Buchanan's,  and  six  in 
President  Lincoln's ;  embracing  a  period  of  American 
official  history  from  18175  and  some  of  these  men  were 
born  before  the  tea  was  thrown  overboard  in  Boston 
harbor. 

For  some"  years  after  Chicago  elected  her  first  member 
of  Congress,  the  widow  of  President  Madison  gave  recep- 


BY    HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  9 

tions  at  Washington,  and  on  the  first  of  January  her  guests 
were  shown  apartments  where  were  suspended  dresses 
Avhich  she  had  worn  upon  all  great  occasions,  including  the 
receptions  of  Presidents  Washington,  Adams,  Jefferson,  and 
her  husband.  James  Madison  was  not  only  a  member  of 
the  Continental  Congress,  but  also  a  member  of  the  first 
Congress  under  the  Constitution,  and  so  continued  during 
the  terms  of  Washington's  Presidency ;  and  was  Secretary 
of  State  under  Mr.  Jefferson's  Administration.  So  this 
lady  had  had  ample  opportunity  to  know  the  customs  of 
every  preceding  period  of  our  Governmental  history.  Now, 
if  her  heirs  bring  out  these  dresses  for  the  Centennial  (she 
had  no  children),  the  public  will  be  asfonished  at  their 
remarkably  small  number,  she  not  having  had,  in  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  what  the  wife  of  the  average  office- 
holder of  these  days  will  have  in  a  single  year. 

Then  there  was  the  widow  of  Gen.  Alexander  Hamilton, 
the  confidant  of  Gen.  Washington  in  the  Revolution,  and 
his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  was  killed  in  a  duel  by 
Aaron  Burr.  She  was  born  in  1757,  and  died  at  Washing- 
ton in  1854.  She  was  soliciting  Congress  to  aid  her  in 
publishing  her  husband's  works.  She  could  tell  all  about 
her  father,  Gen.  Philip  Schuyler,  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion ;  the  personal  appearance  of  Gen.  Washington  and  his 
lady  ;  and  of  almost  all  other  public  persons  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary period.  In  fact,  when  you  sent  your  first  member 
of  Congress  to  Washington,  all  society  was  redolent  with 
scenes  of  the  Revolutionary  period ;  and  here  in  our  midst 
were  several  Revolutionary  soldiers ;  and  one,  Father 
David  Keniston,  who  claimed  to  have  been  one  of  the 
party  who  threw  the  tea  overboard  in  Boston  Harbor. 

You  will  excuse  me  for  digressing  from  the  direct  pur- 
pose of  this  lecture  if  I  here  state  to  you,  that  since  I  com- 
menced writing  it,  I  have  received  a  letter  from  an  old 
colleague  in  Congress,  who  was  born  the  same  year  Great 
Britain  acknowledged  our  independence,  1783, — as  it  will 
probably  be  the  last  opportunity  that  many  of  you  will  ever 
have  of  hearing  a  letter  read  from  a  man  now  living  who  is 
older  than  our  Government;  I  allude  to  the  Hon.  Artemas 
Hale,  of  Bridgewater,  Mass.  He  is  the  oldest  ex-member 
of  Congress  now  living,  in  his  93d  year.  Do  you  want  to 
hear  what  the  veteran  says  ? 

My,  health,  considering  my  age,  is  quite  good.  But  my  time  for 
taking  any  active  part  in  public  matters  is  past.  Still,  however,  I  feel 
a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  our  beloved  country, 


IO  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

and  am  pained  to  hear  of  the  corruption  and  frauds  of  so  many  of 
our  public  men.  It  appears  to  me  that  it  is  of  the  highest  importance 
that  our  circulating  medium  should  have  a  fixed  and  permanent  value, 
which  it  cannot  have  but  by  a  specie  basis.  I  should  be  very  much 
pleased  to  receive  a  letter  from  you,  with  your  views  of  public  matters. 

I  answered  his  letter  in  one  word,  "Amen  !" 

Thus  you  will  see  that  our  history  laps  so  closely  upon 
the  Revolutionary  period  that  there  is  no  precise  point  at 
which  we  can  say  that  Chicago  began,  unless  it  be  in  1832, 
when  the  marching  of  the  troops  of  Gen.  Scott  to  Rock 
Island,  on  the  Mississippi,  called  attention  to  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  and  the  beautiful  locations  west  of  us.  We  often 
hear  of  different  men  who  have  done  much  for  Chicago,  by 
their  writings,  their  speeches,  or  their  enterprise.  But  I 
have  never  heard  of  a  man  who  has  done  more  for  Chi- 
cago than  Chicago  has  done  for  him.  God  made  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  country  to  the  west  of  it;  and,  when 
we  come  to  estimate  who  have  done  the  most  for  Chicago, 
the  glory  belongs  first  to  the  enterprising  farmers  who  raised 
a  surplus  of  produce  and  sent  it  here  for  shipment:  and 
second,  to  the  hardy  sailors  who  braved  the  storms  of  our 
harborless  lakes  to  carry  it  to  market.  All  other  classes 
were  the  incidents,  and  not  the  necessities,  of  our  embryo 
city.  Chicago  is  but  the  index  of  the  prosperity  of  our 
agricultural  classes.  And  to  this  day  we  hear  Chicago 
mercantile  failures  attributed  to  the  inability  of  farmers  to 
get  their  produce  to  market,  when  the  roads  are  in  a  bad 
condition.  If  we  pass  by  the  impetus  given  to  the  agri- 
cultural development  of  the  country  west  of  Chicago  by 
the  Black  Hawk  War  of  1832,  we  must  admit  that  we  are 
passing  into  the  bi-centennial  period.  What  did  Chicago 
know  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  the  Peace  of  1783,  or  the  inauguration  of  Wash- 
ington, until  years  afterwards?  It  is  probable  that  Capt. 
Whistler,  when  he  came  here  to  build  the  fort  of  1804, 
brought  to  Chicago  the  first  information  on  these  subjects, 
and  probably  had  to  employ  an  interpreter  to  explain  it. 
It  was  probably  his  Chaplain  that  made  the  first  prayer  for 
the  President  of  the  United  States  and  all  in  authority; 
and  his  vessel  that  first  floated  the  Stars  and  Stripes  on 
Lake  Michigan.  But  there  were  prayers  here  200  years 
ago,  and  a  flag  that  did  not  denote  our  national  indepen- 
dence, but  French  territorial  aggrandizement 

I  have  used  my  best  efforts  to  find  the  earliest  Recog- 
nition of  Chicago  by  any  official  authority.  Charlevoix 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  I  I 

and  other  French  writers  make  mention  of  the  place,  but 
I  cannot  find  that  the  French  Government  in  any  way 
recognized  it.  After  the  Canadas  were  ceded  to  Great 
Britain,  the  whole  Illinois  country  was  placed  under  the 
local  administration  of  Canada  by  a  bill  which  passed  the 
British  Parliament  in  1766,  known  as  the  "Quebec  Bill;" 
but  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment took  any  official  notice  of  this  place.  It  may  be 
interesting  to  know  what  was  religious  liberty  in  those 
days.  At  the  period  of  the  change  of  Government  from 
the  French,  under  the  treaty  of  Paris,  in  1763,  Thomas 
Gage  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  British  King's  troops 
in  North  America;  and  in  1764,  he  issued  a  proclamation 
authorizing  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Illinois  to  exercise  the 
worship  of  their  religion  in  the  same  manner  as  they  did 
in  Canada,  and  to  go  wherever  they  pleased,  even  to  New 
Orleans. 

In  October,  1778,  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia 
created  the  County  of  Illinois,  Appointed  John  Todd,  of 
Kentucky,  Civil  Commander,  and  authorized  all  the  civil 
officers  to  which  the  inhabitants  had  been  accustomed,  to 
be  chosen  by  a  majority  of  the  citizens  of  their  respective 
districts.  From  this  we  should  infer  that  there  were  then 
settlements  somewhere  in  the  State.  But  I  can  find  nothing 
of  Chicago  while  we  belonged  to  Virginia.  The  late  Wm. 
H.  Brown,  of  this  city,  in  a  lecture  before  our  Historical 
Society,  in  1865,  said:  "The  French  inhabitants  of  Kas- 
kaskia,  in  1818,  the  year  in  which  I  made  my  residence 
there,  claimed  that  that  village  was  founded  in  1707.  There 
were  evidences  at  that  time  (the  remains  of  former  edifices, 
among  them  the  Jesuit  College)  that  their  chronology  was 
substantially  correct." 

In  1788,  Gen.  Arthur  St.  Clair  became  Governor  of  the 
entire  Northwestern  Territory,  and  was  the  first  man  to 
fill  that  position.  The  seat  of  government  .for  Chicago 
people  was  then  at  Marietta,  O.  In  1790  he  came  to- 
Kaskaskia  (some  writers  say  Cahokia)  and  organized  what 
is  now  the  entire  State  of  Illinois  into  a  county,  which 
he  named  for  himself.  Besides  this  there  were  but  two 
counties  in  the  whole  Northwestern  Territory — the  County 
of  Knox,  embracing  Indiana,  and  the  County  of  Hamilton, 
embracing  Ohio.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Chicago 
at  that  time  was  known  to  the  civil  authorities.  Besides 
consulting  all  the  early  writers  upon  the  subject,  I  have 
corresponded  with  all  the  men  in  the  country  who  I  thought 


12  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

would  know  anything  concerning  it.  And  I  cannot  find 
anyone  who  has  any  authority  for  stating  that  there  was  any 
official  recognition  of  Chicago  until  Gen.  Wayne's  Treaty, 
made  at  Greenville  in  1795,  in  which  he  acquired  title  from 
the  Indians  to  a  tract  of  land,  six  miles  square,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  River,  where  a  fort  formerly  stood.  Green- 
ville is  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Ohio,  in  Dark  County, 
upon  the  Indiana  State  line.  There  is  nothing  to  show 
that,  at  that  time,  Gen.  Wayne  came  any  farther  west,  not 
even  as  far  as  Fort  Wayne,  although  he  appears  to  have 
had  the  same  knowledge  of  the  importance  of  the  position 
of  Fort  Wayne  as  he  did  of  that  of  Chicago.  Why  the 
fort  at  this  place,  referred  to,  was  built  here,  and  who  built 
it,  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain.  As  the  French  and 
Indians  were  always  allies,  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
French  should  have  built  such  a  fort.  It  may  be  that  it 
was  built  by  one  of  the  tribes  of  Indians  to  defend  the 
place  from  some  other  tribe.  But  offsetting  tradition 
against  Gen.  Wayne's  official  recognition  of  a  fort  here,  it 
may  be  that  there  was  a  mere  trading  and  store-house,  sur- 
rounded by  pickets.  The  prevailing  impression  is  that 
such  was  the  character  of  all  those  places  called  forts  prior 
to  the  abdication  of  the  French  authority.  Col.  Gurdon  S. 
Hubbard,  our  oldest  living  settler,  who  was  here  in  1818, 
favors  this  idea,  and  has  reminded  me  of  an  almost  for- 
gotten, but  at  one  time  extensively  received,  tradition,  that 
this  old  fort,  or  palisaded  trading-post,  was  on  the  West 
Side,  upon  the  North  Branch,  near  where  Indiana  street 
now  crosses  it;  and  it  was  erected,  or  at  least  was  at  one 
time  occupied,  by  a  Frenchman  named  Garie,  and  hence 
the  tradition  that  our  North  Branch  river  was  one  called 
"Garie's  River." 

There  was  a  powerful  chief  of  the  Illinois  named  Chi- 
cagou,  who  went  to  France  in  the  year  1725.  The  Hon. 
Sidney  Breese,  who  settled  at  Kaskaskia  in  1818,  who  was 
in  the  United  States  Senate  six  years  during  my  service  in 
Congress,  and  who  still  honors  our  Supreme  Court,  is  the 
best  informed  man  in  Illinois  history  now  living.  He 
writes  me: 

I  know  of  no  authorized  recognition  of  Chicago  as  a  place  on  thi> 
globe,  anterior  to  Wayne's  treaty.  I  have  a  copy  of  a  map,  which  I 
made  from  one  in  the  Congressional  Library,  which  I  found  among 
the  papers  of  President  Jefferson,  made  in  1685;  in  which  is  a  place 
on  the  lake  shore,  about  where  your  city  is,  marked  "Chicagou;" 
and  Father  Louis  Vivier,  who  was  a  priest  at  Kaskaskia  in  1752,  in  a 
letter  to  his  Superior,  says:  "Chikagou  was  a  celebrated  Indian  chief. 


BY    HON.  JOHN    \YKNTWORTH.  13 

who  went  to  Paris,  and  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  at  Versailles,  gave 
him  a  splendid  snuff-box,  which  he  was  proud  to  exhibit,  on  his 
return,  to  his  brother  redskins." 

Some  have  contended  that  our  city  was  named  from  him. 
But  Charlevoix,  in  his  History  of  New  France,  gives  us 
that  name  as  early  as  1671,  in  which  year,  he  says,  a 
French  voyageur,  named  Nicholas  Perrot,  went  to  Chicago, 
at  the  lower  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  where  the  Miamis  then 
were.  This  was  before  Father  James  Marquette  came  here. 

The  treaty  of  Greenville,  at  the  time  considered  of  no 
other  importance  than  as  settling  our  difficulties  with  the 
Indians,  afterwards  became  a  matter  of  very  serious  impor- 
tance in  the  settlement  of  our  difficulties  with  Great  Britain, 
while  the  treaty  of  Ghent  was  being  negotiated,  1814.  When 
the  Commissioners  met,  the  Americans  were  surprised  by 
the  British  Commissioners  demanding  the  recognition  of 
that  treaty  as  the  basis  of  negotiations  as  to  the  western 
boundary  of  the  United  States.  The  British  at  first  refused 
to  negotiate  except  upon  the  basis  of  that  treaty,  and  in- 
sisted upon  the  entire  sovereignty  and  independence  of  the  *  .,•  *  \ 
Indian  Cont»^grgcy.'"»^t4aey  -eteimidMlihe  radians  as  their  .  v 
allies,  and  considered  themselves  bound  to  protect  them  in 
their  treaty.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Indians  had, 
for  a  long  time,  received  annuities  from  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  that  these  annuities  were  continued  by  Great 
Britain  after  the  treaty  of  cession  in  1763;  and  that,  after 
our  independence  was  acknowledged  by  Great  Britain,  the 
Indians  annually  sent  delegations  to  Canada  to  receive 
these  annuities.  During  the  pendency  of  these  negotia- 
tions, it  was  ascertained  that  there  had  been  an  alliance, 
offensive  and  defensive,  between  the  celebrated  Chief 
Tecumseh  and  the  British  authorities.  After  discussing 
the  matter,  and  finding  the  Americans  peremptorily  refus- 
ing to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  the  Indians,  the 
British  Commissioners  proposed  that  the  United.  States  and 
Great  Britain  should  exercise  a  joint  protectorate  over  the 
Indians,  and  consider  all  the  territory  not  acknowledged 
to  belong  to  the  United  States  by  the  treaty  of  Greenville 
a  embraced  within  that  protectorate.  This  would  have 
leit  the  six  miles  square  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  River 
in  a  permanently  Indian  country.  The  West  would  have 
been  situated  similarly  to  Oregon,  which  was  so  long  held 
under  the  joint  occupation  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States;  and  the  final  result  of  the  joint  occupation  would 
have  been  the  same  as^n  Oregon,  a  division  of  the  territory; 
•  »'  *  Jl 


14  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

a  part  of  it,  perhaps  including  Chicago,  being  attached,  in 
the  end,  to  the  Canadian  provinces.  The  British  Commis- 
sioners were  so  pertinacious  on  this  subject  that  it  was 
thought  at  one  time  that  negotiations  would  have  to  be 
given  up.  And  when  the  British  Commissioners  finally 
yielded,  the  British  Government  received  the  bitter  curses 
of  the  Indians. 

Billy  Caldwell,  better  known  in  Chicago  as  Sauganash, 
who  lived  here  several  years  after  I  came  here,  and  was 
well  known  to  me  personally,  had  been  the  intimate  friend 
of  Tecumseh,  and  declared  that  if  Tecumseh  had  been  liv- 
ing he  would  have  aroused  all  the  Indians  in  the  Northwest 
in  a  general  warfare  upon  the  Canadian  settlements,  in 
retaliation  for  what  he  considered  the  treachery  at  Ghent. 
Caldwell,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  insisted  that  Tecumseh, 
not  long  before  he  was  killed,  predicted  that  the  British  in 
time  would  abandon  them,  and  seriously  meditated,  during 
the  war  of  1812,  upon  going  over  to  the  Americans  with  all 
his  forces.  Caldwell  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  Colonel  in  the 
British  army,  stationed  upcm  the  Detroit  frontier,  whose 
name  he  bof  e.  W  H^S^ji^£JM^y^^aM^^tS^S^t**nr^TiT7trr . 
He  ultimately  went  to  his  tribe  at  the  Pottawatomie  Reser- 
vation in  Shawnee  County,  Kan.,  and  died  there. 

When  the  Illinois  territory  was  a  part  of  Indiana,  our 
seat  of  government  was  at  Vincennes.  When  it  was  set  off 
from  Indiana,  in  1809,  the  whole  territory  was  organized 
into  two  counties,  St.  Clair  and  Randolph.  Judge  Breese, 
whose  home  was  in  Kaskaskia  in  1818,  informs  me  that  his 
home  was  never  in  the  same  county  with  Chicago,  being  in 
the  southern  County  of  Randolph. 

From  St.  Clair  County,  what  is  now  Cook  County,  was 
set  off  in  the  new  County  of  Madison;  thence  in  the  new 
County  of  Crawford;  in  1819,  in  the  new  County  of  Clark: 
and  so  little  was  then  known  of  the  northern  country,  that 
the  act  creating  Clark  County  extended  it  to  the  Canada 
line.  In  1821,  we  were  set  off  in  the  new  County  of  Pike; 
in  1823,  in  the  new  County  of  Fulton;  and  in  1825,  in  the 
new  County  of  Peoria.  I  have  not  only  caused  the  County 
records  of  these  counties  to  be  examined,  but  have  also 
corresponded  with  their  earliest  settlers,  and  I  can  find 
no  official  recognition  of  Chicago  until  we  reach  Fulton 
County.  The  Clerk  of  that  County  writes  me,  that  the 
earliest  mention  of  Chicago  in  the  records  is  the  order  of 
an  election  at  the  term  of  the  Fulton  County  Commis- 
sioners' Court,  Sept.  2,  1823,  M)  choose  one  Major  and 

4  £<x«uul  38 


BY   HON.  JOHN    WEXTWORTH.  15 

company  officers,  polls  at  Chicago  to  be  opened  at  the  house 
of  John  Kinzie.  The  returns  of  this  election  cannot  be 
found,  if  they  were  ever  made.  As  the  county  was  organ- 
ized in  1823,  this,  of  course,  was  the  first  election  under 
the  organization  of  the  county.  The  same  Court  ordered, 
April  27,  1824,  that  the  Sheriff,  Abner  Eads,  be  released 
from  paying  the  money  tax  collected  at  Chicago  by  & 
«r.  In  those  days  the  Sheriffs  were  ex-ofncio  collectors  of  (%***  A 

tb£n  a  Frenchman,  nr  n  mixmd  brrH  Fr^n^h  nnd  Indiin 
It  seems  that  they  had  defaulters  in  those  days,  as  well  as 
now.  It  would  be  a  gratifying  historical  fact  if  we  could 
know  how  much  this  man  R*«03cr  collected,  as  showing 
the  financial  resources  of  our  population  at  that  time,  when 
all  the  real  estate  belonged  to  the  General  Government. 
The  numerous  followers  of  this  man  '•flSBESS*' have  shown 
their  ingratitude  to  the  founder  of  their  sect  by  their  failure 
to  erect  any  monument  to  his  memory,  or  to  name  after 
him  a  street,  a  schoj:>Miouse,oj^a__fi^ 
These  Ifcufteeasitas  "are"  getting  to^bTa~luimerousbody  of 
men,  and  their  motto  is,  "Keep  what  you  collect."  One 
election  and  one  steal  are  all  that  the  records  of  Fulton 
County  show  for  Chicago ! 

The  Clerk  of  Peoria  County  writes  me,  that  his  earliest 
records  commence  March  8,  1825.  From  these  records 

I  learn  that  John  Kinzie  was  commissioned  Justice  of  the 
Peace  July   28,    1825.      He  was  the  first  Justice  of  the 
Peace  resident  at  Chicago.     Alexander  Wolcott,  his  son-in- 
law,  an4*John  B.  Beaubien,  were  commissioned  Sept.   10, 
of  the  same  year.  * 

I  have  also  the  assessment-roll  of  John  L.  Bogardus, 
assessor  of  Peoria  County,  for  the  year  1825,  dated  July 
25,  which  is  as  follows: 

Tax-Payers'  Names.                                                                            Valuation.  Tax. 

1  Beaubien,  John  B , $1000  $10.00 

2  Clybourne,  Jonas,    625  6.25 

Clark,  John  K 250  2. 50 

Crafts,  John, 5000  50.00 

'Clermpnt,  Jeremy, 100  i.oo 

6  Coutra,  Louis, 5°  -5° 

7  Kinzie^  Joh*n>^_ 5°°  5-°° 

8  Laframboise,  Claude, 100  i.oo 

9  fiafraniboTse',  'Joseph, 50  .50 

10     McKee,  David,    100  i.oo 

I 1  Piche,  Peter,    100  i.oo 

12  Robinson,  Alexander,  200  2.00 

13  Wolcott,  Alexander,  572  5.72 

14  Wilemet  [Ouilmette],'  Antoine, 400  4.00 


i6 


REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 


The  entire  valuation,  land  then  being  not  taxable,  of  all 
the  property  in  Chicago  was  $9,047,  and  the  rate  was  one 
per  cent.  But  the  property  of  the  American  Fur  Company 
was  assessed  to  John  Crafts,  its  agent,  at  $5,000.  He  was 
a  bachelor,  and  died  the  next  year,  and  Mr.  Kinzie  was 
appointed  in  his  place.  Deducting  the  American  Fur  Co.'s 
assessment,  we  have  only  $4,047  as  the  personal  property 
of  Chicago,  in  1825,  $40.47  as  the  tax,  and  thirteen  as  tMt 
number  of  the  tax-payers. 

The  clerk  sent  me  a  copy  of  two  poll-books  used  at  Chicago 
—  one  at  an  election  held  Aug.  7,  1826,  containing  thirty- 
five  names;  the  other  at  an  election  held  Aug.  2,  1830, 
containing  thirty-two  namesf  thus  showing  a  decrease  of 
three  voters  in  four  years.  I  will  read  you  the  names  of 
our  voters  in  1826,  and  you  will  see  that  only  ten  of  the 
fourteen  tax-payers  in  1825  then  voted  : 

19  John  Baptiste  Lafortune. 

20  John  Baptiste  Malast. 

21  Joseph  Pothier. 

22  Alexander^ebinS 

23  John  K.  Clark. 

24  David  McKee. 

25  Joseph  Anderson. 

26  Joseph  Pepot. 

27  John  Baptiste  Beaubien.  1825 

28  John  Kinzie.  1825 

29  Archibald  Clybourne. 

30  Billy  Caldwell.       , 

31  Martin  Vansicle. 

32  Paul  Jamboe.          /) 

33  Jonas  Clvbnnrne—  %l       1825 
EdwarcVme'nt. 


1825 


1  Augustin  Banny.   [Bannot?] 

2  Henry  Kelley. 

3  Daniel  Bourassea. 

4  Cole  Weeks. 

5  Antoine  Ouilmette. 

6  John  Baptiste  Secor. 

7  Joseph  Catie. 

8  Benjamin  Russell. 

9  Basile  Displattes. 

10  Francis  Laframboise,   Sr. 

1 1  Francis  Laframboise,  Jr. 

12  Joseph  Laframboise.          1825 

13  Alexander  Larant. 

14  Francis  Laducier. 

15  Peter  Chavellie. 

1 6  Claude  Laframboise.         1825 


1825 
1825. 
1825 


34 


17  Jeremiah  Clairmore[Clermont?]'25  35  Samoe^johnston. 

1 8  Peter  Junio. 

I  will  now  read  you  the  names  of  our  voters  in  1830, 
showing  that  only  three  of  the  fourteen  tax-payers  of  1825 
then  voted : 


1  Stephen  J.  Scott. 

2  John  B.  Beaubien.  1825,  1826 

3  Leon  Bourassea. 

4  B.  H.  Laughton. 

5  Jesse  Walker, 

6  Medard  B.  Beaubien. 

7  John  Baptiste  Chavellea. 

8  James  Kinzie. 

9  Russell  E.  Heacock. 

10  James  Brown. 

11  Jos.  Laframboise-  1825,  1826 

12  John  L.  Davis. 


13  William  See. 

14  John  Van  Horn. 

15  John  Mann. 

1 6  David  Van  Eaton.^ 

17  Stephen  Mack^^^ 

1 8  Jonathan  ^JTTailey. 


Alexander 

20  John  S.  C.  Hogan. 

21  David  McKee.    1825, 

22  Billy  Caldwell. 

23  Joseph  Thibeaut. 

24  Peter  .Frique. 


b 

A 


BY.  HON.  JOHN    WENTWORTH.  I/ 

25  Mark  Beaubien.  29  Michael  Welch. 

26  Laurant  Martin.  30  Francis  Laducier,          1826 

27  John  Baptiste  Secor  1826         31   Lewis  Ganday. 

28  Joseph  Bauskey.  32  Peresh  Leclerc. 

It  is  a  remarkable  commentary  upon  the  fickleness  of  our 
population,  that  only  six  of  the  men  who  voted  in  1826 
voted  in  1830;  and  these  six  were  half-breeds  or  Govern- 
ment employes.  Father  John  Kinzie,  however,  died  be- 
tween the  two  elections,  upon  the  6th  of  January,  1828, 
aged  65.  But  there  were  some  not  voting  at  the  second 
election,  such  as  the  late  Archibald  Clybourne,  his  father 
Jonas,  and  half-brother  John  K.  Clark,  who  ended  their 
days  with  us.  The  half-breeds  and  French  who  did  not 
vote  may  have  been  away  on  a  hunting  and  trading  expedi- 
tion. The  voters  in  1826  seem  to  have  understood  their 
true  interest,  being  dependents  upon  the  fort,  as  every  one  of 
them  voted  the  Administration  ticket,  John  Quincy  Adams 
then  being  President.  If  there  were  ever  three  men  in  the 
United  States  who  electrified  the  whole  country  with  their 
fiery  denunciations  of  the  military  power,  they  were  Presi- 
dent John  Quincy  Adams,  his  Vice-President  John  C.  Cal- 
houn,  and  his  Secretary  of  State  Henry  Clay.  Neither  of 
the  three  ever  forget  Gen.  Jackson  !  It  would  have  seemed 
malicious,  and  yet  quitQ.Aertinent,  on  the  part  of  the  Chicago 
member  of  Congress  to  have  asked  either  of  these  gentlemen 
whether  it  was  not  a  singular  fact  that,  while  Mr.  Adams 
was  President,  the  people  of  Chicago  unanimously  voted 
with  the  fort !  Ninian  Edwards  for  Governor,  Samuel  H. 
Thompson  for  Lieutenant-Governor.  Daniel  P.  Cook  for* 
Congressman,  the  Administration  candidates,  each  received 
thirty-five  votes,  being  all  there  were.  The  much-com- 
plained-of  military  power  of  the  present  day  has  "never 
secured  a  greater  unanimity  in  the  colored  vote  of  the 
South.  But  four  years  later,  in  1830,  when  Andrew  Jack- 
son was  President,  there  was  a  material  change  in  the 
politics  of  the  place:  John  Reynolds,  the  Jackson  candi- 
date for  Governor,  received  twenty-two  out  of  the  thirty-two 
votes  cast.  Of  the  six  who  voted  at  both  elections,  and 
who  voted  for  the  Adams  candidate  in  1826,  five  voted  for 
the  Jackson  candidate  in  1830;  showing  their  consistency 
by  each  time  voting  with  the  Administration,  or  more 
roperly  with  the  fort.  Billy  Caldwell,  the  Sauganash,  the 
ephew  of  Tecumseh^  voted  the  Jackson  ticket ;  while 
Joseph  Laframboise,  a  noted  Indian  chief,  stood  out  and 
voted  against  it.  Perhaps  Gen^Jackson,  in  some  of  the 


1 8  REMINISCENCKS   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

early  Indian  wars,  had  caused  the  death  of  some  of  Lafram- 
boise's  relatives  or  friends.  Up  to  1 848,  we  had  the  viva 
voce  system  of  voting  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  Each  man 
went  up  to  the  polls,  with  or  without  a  ticket  in  his  hands, 
and  told  whom  he  wanted  to  vote  for,  and  the  judges  so 
recorded  it.  But  in  those  days  the  masses  knew  as  little 
whom  they  were  voting  for  as  they  do  now.  For  the 
judges  often  read  off  the  names  of  the  candidates  from  the 
tickets,  and  the  voter  would  nod  his  head.  There  was  no 
chance,  however,  for  stuffing  the  ballot-box  under  the  viva 
voce  system.  It  may  account  for  the  falling  off  of  the  vote 
between  1826  and  1830,  that  some  persons  would  not  vote 
the  Jackson  ticket,  and  yet  disliked  to  vote  against  the 
fort.  There  were  four  of  the  Laframboise  family  voting  in 
1826,  and  only  one  in  1830.  The  names  of  voters  in  1826 
indicate  that  full  three-fourths  of  them  were  French  and 
half-breeds.  The  judges  in  1826  were  Father  John  Kinzie, 
the  late  Gen.  John  B.  Beaubien,  and  Billy  Caldwell.  The 
clerks  were  the  late  Archibald  Clybourne  and  liis  half-brother 
John  K.  Clark.  The  election  was  held  at  the  Agency 
House,  in  Chicago  Precinct,  Peoria  County.  The  Agency 
House  was  on  the  North  Side,  and  was  the  second  house 
built  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Kinzie's  being  the  first.  The  Indian 
Agent  was  Dr.  Alexander  WolcotsLwho  died  in  1830,  son- 
in-law  of  Mr.  Kinzie.  1 

The  election  of  1830,  was  held  in  the  house  of  James 
Kinzie,  Chicago  Precinct,  Peoria  County.  This  house  was 
on  the  West  Side,  near  the  forks  of  the  river.  The  South 
Side  had  no  status  at  that  time,  there  being  nothing  then 
on  that  side  except  the  fort  and  light-house  building,  and 
the  log-houses  of  the  two  Beaubien  brothers, — one  residing 
at  the  lake  shore,  and  one  near  the  forks  of  the  river,  with 
such  a  marsh  between,  that,  much  of  the  time,  their  most 
convenient  way  of  visiting  each  other  was  in  boats  in  the 
river. 

The  judges  at  the  election  of  1830,  were  Russell  E. 
Heacock,  the  first  lawyer  to  settle  in  Chicago,  Gen.  John 
B.  Beaubien,  one  of  the  judges  in  1826,  and  James  Kin- 
zie. The  clerks  were  Medard  B.  Beaubien,  well  known 
in  this  city,  now  principal  agent  of  the  Pottawatomie  tribe 
of  Indians  at  Silver  Lake,  Shawnee  County,  Kansas,  and 
Jesse  Walker.  The  names  of  voters  in  1830,  indicate 
a  large  influx  of  the  Anglo-Saxon;  race ;  but  among  them 
was  one  Irishman,  probably  the  first  Irishman  who  "ever 
trod  the  Chicago  soil.  The  first  thought  that  occurred  to 


BY   HON.  JOHN    WENTWORTH.  19 

me  was,  What  could  bring  an  Irishman  out  here  all  alone? 
Who  was  to  help  him  celebrate  St.  Patrick's  Day?  Who 
was  to  attend  his  wake?  His  name  was  Michael  Welch. 
What  have  our  many  Irish  Aldermen  been  thinking  of,  that 
they  have  never  given  us,  in  honor  of  their  first  settler,  a 
Welch  avenue,  a  Welch  street,  a  Welch  schoool-house,  or  a 
Welch  fire-engine?  The  next  thought  that  occurred  to  me 
was,  What  could  he  be  doing  out  here  all  by  himself? 
Now,  what  would  an  Irishman  naturally  do  when  he  found 
himself  here  all  alone,  hundreds  of  miles  distant  from  any- 
other  Irishman?  He  was  a  bugler.  He  blew  his  horn. 
He  was  a  discharged  soldier,  and,  having  faithfully  served 
out  his  time,  he  stopped  long  enough  to  vote  the  straight 
Jackson  ticket,  and  then  joined  Captain  Jesse  Brown's 
Rangers  and  marched  on  to  clear  the  Indians  out  of  the 
way  of  his  coming  countrymen,  who  were  already  aroused 
by  his  bugle's  blast,  as  his  patron  St.  Patrick,  centuries 
before,  had  cleared  the  snakes  out  of  his  way  in  the  land  of 
;his  nativity. 

Capt.  Jesse  Brown  was  a  brother  of  the  late  Judge 
Thomas  C.  Brown,  of  our  Supreme  Court,  and  was  author- 
ized by  President  Jackson  to  raise  a  company  of  men,  who 
were  called  "  Brown's  Rangers,"  and  was  ordered  to  report 
to  Gen.  Stephen  W.  Kearney,  on  the  Western  frontier. 

There  is  a  prevailing  impressidi  that  Irishmen  never  go 
anywhere  except  in  squads..  But  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can Continent  will  prove  that  Irishmen  have  ventured  as 
far  alone  upon  hazardous  explorations  as  any  other  men. 
But  he  dislikes  to  stay  alone.  Like  the  honey-bee,  when 
he  finds  a  good  thing,  he  wants  some  others  to  come  and 
help  him  enjoy  it.  My  original  Congressional  district 
extended  north  to  the  Wisconsin  line,  west  to  the  Rock 
'River  Valley,  south  so  as  to  embrace  Princeton,  LaSalle, 
Bloomington,  Urbana,  and  Danville.  I  had  to  travel  all 
over  this  district  with  a  horse  and  buggy,  and  visit  the 
spare  settlements.  I  often  found  an  Irishman  cultivating 
the  soil  alone.  But  when  I  made  a  second  visit,  I  found 
some  more  Irishmen  there,  or  else  the  original  one  had 
gone.  Gov.  Winthrop,  of  Boston,  in  his  journal  under  date 
•of  1642,  tells  us  of  one  Darby  Field,  an  Irishman,  who 
could  not  rest  contented  after  his  landing  in  America  until 
he  had  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  White  Mountains.  He 
was  the  first  man  to  ascend  Mount  Washington,  and  when 
asked  why  he  went,  replied,  "  Merely  to  take  a  look  at  the 
country  !" 


20  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

The  official  dispatches  of  one  of  the  battles  of  the  Mexi- 
can War  commended  the  conduct  of  Private  Sullivan,  of 
one  of  our  Chicago  regiments.  In  the  battle  he  had 
advanced  before  his  company,  engaged  in  a  single  combat 
with  a  Mexican  officer,  and  killed  him.  I  called  President 
Folk's  attention  to  the  report,  and  asked  for  Sullivan's  pro- 
motion. He  referred  the  matter  to  the  Adjutant-General. 
Time  passed  along,  and  no  appointment  was  sent  to  the 
Senate.  I  called  upon  the  Adjutant-General,  and  he  read 
me  a  letter  from  Sullivan's  superior  officer,  commending  his 
courage  and  general  good  conduct,  but  strongly  protesting 
against  his  appointment  as  Lieutenant  in  the  regular  army, 
on  account  of  his  deficiency  in  West  Point  education.  I 
appealed  to  the  President,  and  it  did  not  take  long  to 
satisfy  him  that  good  fighting  in  war-time  would  counter- 
balance all  deficiencies  in  education,  and  Sullivan  was 
promoted.  Some  time  after  the  close  of  the  war,  his  father 
called  upon  me,  said  he  had  not  heard  from  his  son  for  a 
long  time,  and  wanted  me  to  find  him.  Many  of  you  will 
remember  the  father,  Jeremiah  Sullivan,  at  one  time  Justice 
of  the  Peace, — a  tall  and  well-proportioned  gentleman,  with 
as  prepossessing  a  general  appearance  as*  any  gentleman 
who  walked  our  streets.  I  wrote  to  Washington,  and 
received  for  answer  thaUjSullivan  resigned  his  Lieutenancy 
at  the  close  of  the  war.  Inside  the  official  letter  was  a 
note  marked  "private  and  unofficial."  ''Tell  Sullivan's 
father  to  read  the  news  from  Mexico.  I  enclose  some 
scraps  from  a  New  Orleans  newspaper,  and  the  Col.  Sul- 
livan therein  mentioned  is  reported  to  be  the  late  Lieut. 
Sullivan  of  the  regular  army."  Some  time  afterwards,  an 
officer  of  the  army  gave  me  the  following  account :  After 
the  close  of  the  war  with  Mexico,  some  of  the  officers  were 
tarrying  late  at  dinner,  when  Lieut.  Sullivan  entered  and 
was  saluted  with  "  Will  you  join  us,  Lieut.  Sullivan  ?" 
"Col.  Sullivan,  if  you  please,  gentleman,"  was  the  reply. 
Whereupon  one  of  the  officers  said,  "It  will  not  surprise  us 
at  all  if  you  are  Col.  Sullivan.  If  your  killing  that  Mexican 
was  of  so  much  account  as  to  put  you  on  an  equality  with 
us  who  have  studied  four  years  at  West  Point,  and  have 
seen  considerable  active  service,  a  little  personal  favoritism 
might  carry  you  still  higher,  and  make  you  a  Colonel. 
Why,  Lieut.  Sullivan,  if  you  should  kill  another  Mexican, 
those  politicians  at  Washington  would  make  you  Com- 
mander-in-Chief !"  "Gentlemen,"  said  Sullivan,  "it  is 
business  that  brings  me  here.  Here  is  my  commission  as 


BY   HOX.  JOHN    WEXTWORTH.  21 

Colonel  in  the  Mexican  revolutionary  army,  and  now  you 
know  my  authority.  And  now,  here's  my  business  in  this 
paper,  which  I  will  read."  He  then  read  a  paper  authoriz- 
ing and  requesting  him  to  employ  a  competent  engineer 
upon  his  staff.  The  officers  reminded  him  that  they  knew 
nothing  of  the  face  of  the  Mexican  country,  had  no  maps, 
knew  not  his  route,  and  insisted  that  they  could  be  of  no 
•service  to  him.  "  You  do  not  understand  me,  gentlemen/' 
replied  Sullivan ;  "  it  is  not  for  what  I  am  going  to  do  that 
I  want  any  of  your  assistance.  I  only  want  you  to  map  it 
out  after  I  have  done  it.  You  are  always  talking  about 
your  military  school,  and  what  you  have  studied,  and  the 
like  of  you  will  be  at  school  hereafter,  and  they  will  want 
to  study  Sullivan's  Route  to  the  Capital  of  Mexico ;  and  if 
ever  I  should  be  Emperor,  whom  would  I  want  for  Sec- 
retary of  War  but  my  own  Engineer?"  Sullivan  set  out 
upon  his  march  with  no  one  to  map  out  his  route.  He 
penetrated  regions  where  no  man  had  ever  been  before. 
He  came  out  of  forests  where  men  least  expected  him.  He 
appeared  to  be  everywhere,  and  the  inhabitants  could  make 
no  calculation  where  he  was  not.  They  either  all  joined 
him,  or  fled  before  him.  He  had  everything  his  own  way, 
until,  in  his  efforts  to  join  the  main  army,  he  found  himself 
in  the  fortified  country.  Here  he  missed  his  engineer  and 
his  military  education.  He  was  wounded,  taken  prisoner, 
marched  into  the  Plaza,  a  bullet  pierced  his  heart,  and  that 
•was  the  last  of  Sullivan.  But  it  just  took  a  Chicago  Irish 
boy  to  teach  the  Emperor  Maximilian  how  to  die  the  death 
of  a  soldier  some  twenty  years  afterwards  ;  and  Sullivan  had 
as  much  right  in  Mexico  as  Maximilian. 

There  are  67  names  upon  the  two  voting-lists  of  1825 
and  1830.  Six  voted  at  both  elections,  leaving  61  different 
names,  which,  with  the  four  on  the  tax-list  of  1825  who  did 
not  vote  at  either  election,  constitute  the  65  from  whom 
•our  first  families  are  descended. 

And  as  there  may  be  some  pride  in  after  years  in  tracing 
one's  connection  with  our  first  families,  the  real  Knicker- 
bockers of  Chicago,  1  have  taken  some  pains  to  obtain 
interviews  or  hold  correspondence  with  such  of  them  as 
might  be  living,  and  with  the  descendants  of  such  as  are 
dead.  Of  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  I  can  obtain  no 
knowledge  whatever.  I  shall  publish  all  their  names,  and 
at  some  future  time  shall  publish  what  I  have  ascertained, 
or  may  hereafter  ascertain,  of  their  history  and  of  their  de- 
scendants. When  it  was  known,  in  1860,  that  the  Prince 


22  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

of  Wales  was  to  make  Chicago  a  visit,  one  of  our  society 
men  suggested  that  it  was  my  duty,  as  Mayor  of  the  city, 
to  select  about  a  hundred  from  our  first  families  and  give 
the  Prince  a  ball.  I  asked  him  to  give  the  names  of  the 
hundred  from  the  first  families.  This  he  said  he  was  un- 
willing to  do.  I  asked  him  then  to  give  me  the  names  of 
even  ten  of  our  first  families,  meaning,  of  course,  nine 
besides  his  own.  This  he  also  declared  himself  unwilling 
to  do.  But  if,  at  any  future  time,  any  one  of  our  society 
men  should  wish  to  make  a  party  from  our  first  families,  he 
may  derive  some  assistance  from  this  lecture. 

At  this  time  I  think  there  are  but  three  of  those  voters 
living.  One  is  Medard  B.  Beaubien,  son  of  the  late  Gen. 
John  B.  Beaubien,  of  this  city,  now  the  leading  man  among 
the  Pottawatomie  Indians,  in  Kansas.  The  second  is 
David  McKee,  now  living  near  Aurora,  111.  He  was  born 
in  Virginia  in  1800,  and  went  to  Cincinnati  when  a  young 
man,  as  a  blacksmith.  Under  the  treaty  of  Chicago,  made 
with  the  Indians  by  Gen.  Cass,  in  1821,  the  Government 
was  to  keep  a  blacksmith  here,  who  was  to  work  exclusively 
for  the  Indians.  Col.  Benjamin  B.  Kerchival,  then  Indian 
Agent,  afterwards  a  prominent  citizen  of  Detroit,  went  to 
Cincinnati  and  employed  McKee  to  come  here  in  that 
capacity.  McKee  reached  Fort  Wayne,  and  there  waited 
for  a  guide.  At  that  time  the  only  mail  Chicago  had  was 
a  monthly  'one  to  Fort  Wayne.  He  did  not  wait  long 
before  the  exploring  expedition  of  Maj.  Stephen  H.  Long 
reached  that  place,  and  he  accompanied  it  to  Chicago. 
.Turning  to  the  history  of  that  expedition,  by  Prof.  William 
H.  Keating,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  I  find  that 
orders  were  issued  to  Maj.  Long,  April  25,  1823,  for  him 
to  commence  at  Philadelphia,  thence  to  proceed  to  Wheel- 
ing, thence  to  Chicago  or  Fort  Wayne,  thence  to  Fort 
Armstrong  or  Dubuque  lead  mines,  thence  up  the  Missis- 
sippi to  Fort  St.  Anthony,  etc.  The  expedition  reached 
Fort  Wayne,  May  26,  1823,  and  Prof.  Keating  speaks  of 
the  fort  then  there  as  erected  in  1814  on  the  site  of  the  old 
fort,  the  location  of  which  had  been  designated  by  Gen. 
Anthony  Wayne  after  his  victory  over  the  confederated 
Indians  on  the  2oth  of  August,  1794,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
treaty  of  Greenville  in  the  following  year.  The  Professor 
says  also,  that  the  expedition  fortunately  met  at  Fort 
Wayne  the  express  sent  from  Chicago  for  letters,  and 
obtained  him  as  guide.  They  left  Fort  Wayne  May  29th, 
1823.  Their  cavalcade  consisted  of  seven  persons,  in- 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  23 

eluding  the  soldier  mail-carrier,  and  a  colored  servant ;  and 
they  had  two  horses  loaded  with  provisions.  On  the  5th 
of  June  they  reached  Fort  Dearborn,  Chicago,  having  been 
eight  days  in  traveling  the  distance  of  216  miles,  an  average 
of  27  miles  a  day,  their  distance  exceeding  the  usual  allow- 
ance by  1 6  miles,  in  consequence  of  their  circuitous  route 
to  avoid  the  Elkhart  River.  The  railroad  train  now  leav- 
ing here  at  9  a.m.  reaches  Fort  Wayne  at  2  p.m.  The 
post  at  Chicago  was  abandoned  a  few  months  after  the 
party  reached  it,  in  consequence  of  the  rapid  extension  of 
the  white  population  westward,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
chain  of  military  posts  along  the  Mississippi  River,  render- 
ing the  continuance  of  the  force  here  unnecessary.  An 
Indian  Agent,  Dr.  Alexander  Wolcott,  uncle  of  our  present 
County  Surveyor,  of  the  same  name,  remained  here  to  keep 
up  amicable  relations  with  the  Indians,  and  to  attend  to 
their  wants,  daily  becoming  greater  in  consequence  of  the 
increasing  scarcity  of  game.  Fort  Dearborn  was  not  occu- 
pied by  soldiers  again,  except  temporarily  in  transit,  until 
1832,  when  the  Black  Hawk  troubles  broke  out.  -  When 
Mr.  McKee  came  here  there  were  but  -two  houses ;  one 
belonging  to  John  Kinzie,  the  other  to  his  son-in-law,  Dr. 
Alexander  Wolcott,  the  Indian  Agent, — Mr.  Kinzie's  hav- 
ing been  built  first.  Both  houses  were  built  of  logs,  and 
lined  with  cedar  bark.  The  third  house  was  built  by 
Joseph  Pothier,  a  Frenchman,  and  one  of  the  voters  here 
in  1826,  and  who  until  recently  was  a  resident  of  Mil- 
waukee. He  married  an  Indian  half-breed,  brought  up  by 
Mr.  Kinzie,  and  was  striker  for  Mr.  McKee  in  the  black- , 
smith  shop.  Mr.  McKee  was  married  by  Mr.  Kinzie,  at 
Mr.  Kinzie's  house,  and  he  built  the  fourth  house.  All 
four  houses  were  on  the  north  side  of  the  river. 

The  inhabitants  were  soldiers,  Frenchmen  in  the  employ 
of  the  American  Fur  Company,  and  Indians.  When  the 
fort  was  not  garrisoned,  and  the  fur-traders  were  in  the 
country  making  their  purchases,  the  Indians  constituted 
almost  the  entire  population.  In  i827-'28,  Mr.  McKee 
carried  the  mail  once  a  month  to  Fort  Wayne.  As  his 
Indian  pony  had  to  carry  the  mail-bag  and  the  blankets  for 
him  to  sleep  upon,  he  could  not  carry  corn  for  the  pony 
and  provisions  for  himself.  He  drove  the  pony  in  front  of 
him,  and  cut  down  an  elm  or  basswood  tree  for  the  pony 
to  browse  upon  during  the  night.  He  carried  a  gun  with 
which  he  killed  the  game  for  his  own  food.  His  route  was 
from  here  to  Niles,  Mich.,  thence  to  Elkhart,  Ind.,  and 


24  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

thence  to  Fort  Wayne.  His  average  trip  from  this  place 
to  Fort  Wayne  was  fourteen  days;  the  quickest  time  he 
ever  made  was  ten  days.  Gen.  John  McNiel,  one  of  the 
heroes  in  the  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane,  commanded  the  fort 
when  Mr.  McKee  came  to  Chicago.  Soon  after  his  arrival, 
a  sailing  vessel,  called  the  Heartless,  undertook  to  enter 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  ran  ashore,  and  was  beached  in  the 
sand.  They  tried  to  cut  her  out,  but  she  went  to  pieces. 
About  a  year  thereafter  the  first  vessel  entered  the  harbor, 
and  anchored  opposite  the  fort.  It  was  the  United  States 
revenue-cutter  Fairplay.  When  we  speak  of  the  first  vessel 
coming  to  Chicago,  there  is  always  a  confusion  between 
the  vessels  that  anchored  outside  and  the  vessels  that 
actually  came  up  into  the  river.  It  is  claimed  that  this 
United  States  revenue-cutter  Fairplay  was  the  first  one  to 
actually  enter  the  river.  In  1826,  there  came  here  a  sail- 
ing vessel  called  the  Young  Tiger,  to  enter  the  river,  but 
she  anchored  out  in  the  lake,  slipped  her  cable,  and  went 
ashore. 

Buell,   now  residing  in   Clinton   County,    Iowa, 

ear  Lyons,  aged  75,  claims  that  he  was  pilot  and  naviga- 
tor on  the  schooner  Aurora,  Capt.  Titus,  that  came  to 
Chicago  in  1820  or  1821;  but  he  leaves  the  question  un- 
settled as  to  whether  or  not  he  came  up  into  the  river. 
The  steamers  which  brought  here  the  troops  of  Gen.  Scott, 
in  1832,  had  to  anchor  some  distance  outside.  The  per- 
sons claiming  to  have  been  upon  the  first  vessel  that  passed 
over  the  Chicago  bar  and  came  up  into  the  river,  are  even 
more  numerous  than  those  claiming  to  be  descendants  of 
the  persons  who  had  the  first  white  child  born  in  Chicago. 
I  will  not  discuss  this  matter  now,  as  the  mass  of  you  care 
less  about  those  who  had  the  first  child  than  you  do  about 
those  who  are  to  have  the  next  one,  and  what  is  to  become 
of  it. 

The  third  man  now  living  who  voted  in  Chicago  Pre- 
cinct, Peoria  County,  in  1830,  is  our  well-known  fellow- 
citizen,  Mark  Beaubien.  He  came  here  in  1826.  to  visit  his 
brother,  John  B.  Beaubien,  who  was  an  employe  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  and  who  lived  in  a  log-house  near 
the  lake-shore,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  on  the  South 
Side.  Mark  returned  to  Detroit,  and  brought  his  family 
here,  and  built  him  a  log-house,  fronting  the  river,  on 
what  is  known  as  the  "  Old  Wigwam  Lot,"  on  the  corner  of 
Lake  and  Market  streets  ;  it  being  at  that  time  the  only 
dwelling-house  on  the  South  Side,  except  his  brother's. 


BY    HON.  JOHN    WENTWQRTH.  25 

He  constructed  it  for  hotel  purposes,  and,  when  the  Indian 
Chief  Sauganash  learned  nis  design,  he  told  him  that 
Americans  named  their  hotels  after  "big  men,  and  asked 
him  what  he  was  going  to  call  it.  Mr.  Beaubien  took  the 
hint,  and  said  "I'll  call  it  Sauganash  !"  A  few  years  after- 
wards, he  built  a  large  addition  to  it,  which  was  the  first 
frame-house  built  on  the  South  Side.  It  was  in  this  house 
that  I  took  my  first  meal,  on  my  arrival  here  in  1836,  it  being 
then  kept  by  John  Murphy.  Mr.  Beaubien  was  born  in  1800, 
and  in  Detroit,  where  his  father  was  also  b'orn ;  but  his  grand- 
father was  an  emigrant  from  France.  He  established  the  first 
ferry,  at  the  forks  of  the  river.  He  was  an  original  fiddler, 
having  inherited  the  art  in  the  natural  way ;  and  he  will 
probably  die  one.  In  case  of  the  absence  of  the  music  at 
any  of  our  parties  in  olden  times,  Mr.  Beaubien  was  always 
sent  for,  and  when  one  fiddle-string  broke,  he  was  good  for 
the  three ;  and,  when  another  broke,  He  could  still  keep  up 
the  music ;  and  if  there  were  only  one  string  left,  a  party 
would  never  go  away  disappointed  if  Mr.  Beaubien  was  left 
to  play  upon  it.  He  has  done  much  to  keep  up  our  first 
families,  having  had  twenty-three  children.  His  grand- 
children had  numbered  fifty-three  when  the  great-grand- 
children began  to  make  their  appearance,  and  he  stopped 
counting.  I  introduce  him  to  you  to-day  as  the  only  man 
you  will  probably  ever  see  who  witnessed  the  surrender  of 
an  American  army.  God  grant  that  such  an  event  may 
never  happen  again  I  During  the  War  of  1812,  Mr.  Beau- 
bien's  father,  hearing  that  the  town  (Detroit)  was  about  to 
be  bombarded  by  the  British  army,  had  ordered  his  children 
to  go  down  into  the  cellar,  when  news  came  that  Gen.  Hull 
had  surrendered.  Mark  Beaubien  saw  Gen.  Hull  and  his 
staff  rowed  over  to  the  Canadian  shore,  and  then  the 
soldiers  were  taken  over  under  the  charge  of  the  red-coat 
officials. 

Cook  County  was  set  off  from  Peoria  County  under 
an  act  passed  in  1831.  The  first  election  was  in  Aug., 
1832.  The  county  was  named  for  the  Hon.  Daniel  P. 
Cook,  son-in-law  of  Gov.  Ninian  Edwards,  who  was  one 
of  the  first  United  States  Senators  from  this  State.  Mr. 
Cook  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  1820  to  1827,  and 
died  in  1827,  aged  32,  one  of  the  most  talented  men 
who  ever  lived  in  this  State.  As  our  poll-lists  of  the 
first  election,  in  1832,  were  burnt,  I  can  no  longer  trace 
our  first  families,  and  those  who  wish  to  marry  into  them 
must  look  back  to  those  who  were  taxed  in  1825,  or  voted 

/  ^ 


26  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

in  1826  or  1830,  if  they  do  not  wish  their  honors  disputed. 
Cook  County  then  included  the  present  Counties  of  Lake, 
McHenry,  DuPage,  and  Will,  all  west  being  included  in 
Jo  Daviess  County.  The  only  voting-place  of  Cook 
County  at  that  time  was  at  Chicago.  The  highest  number 
of  votes  cast  for  all  the  candidates  for  any  one  office  in 
1832  was  114,  against  32  in  1830,  and  35  in  1826. 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  practice  then,  as  now,  to  take 
our  officers  from  Galena,  and  then,  as  now,  they  were  very 
good  men.  Galena  and  Chicago  were  then  in  the  same 
Representative  and  Senatorial  Districts.  Col.  James  M. 
Strode  was  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  Benjamin  Mills 'to 
the  House,  both  being  attorneys-at-law  at  Galena.  Elijah 
Wentworth,  Jr.,  who  died  at  Galesburg,  111.,  on  the  i8th  of 
November  last,  received  all  the  votes  for  Coroner  at  this 
election.  He  wroteijfie,  just  before  his  death,  that  he 
went  with  his  father/Elijah  Wentworth,  Sr.,  from  Maine  to 
Kentucky;  they  moved  thence  to  Dodgeville,  WTis.,  where 
he  was  living  at  the  time  Jefferson  Davis  was  constructing 
Fort  Winnebago,  about  75  miles  distant.  Davis  had  been 
ordered  there  soon  after  his  graduation  at  West  Point  in 
1828,  and  he  often  visited  Dodgeville  in  attendance  upon 
social  parties,  and  is  well  remembered  by  old  settlers  there, 
to  this  day.  In  1830,  Mr.  Wentworth  and  his  father  moved 
to  Chicago,  and  rented  a  new  hotel  of  James  Kinzie,  then 
the  best  in  Chicago,  on  the  West  Side,  near  the  forks  of 
the  river.  It  was  a  log-house,  with  upright  boards  upon 
the  outside.  He  carried  the  mail  from  Chicago  to  Niles, 
once  a  month. 

At  the  annual  election  in  August,  1834,  the  highest  num- 
ber of  votes  for  all  the  candidates  for  any  one  office  was 
528,  against  114  in  1832.  Thus  our  population  began  to 
increase.  This  vote  was  for  the  whole  County  of  Cook. 
In  1835,  tne  highest  number  of  votes  in  the  entire  county, 
for  all  the  candidates  for  any  one  office,  was  1064.  And 
religious  enterprise  and  liberality  had  so  far  advanced  that, 
at  the  Ladies'  Fair  at  the  old  St.  James,  the  mother  of 
Episcopacy  in  the  Northwest,  on  the  i8th  of  June  in  that 
year,  the  receipts  were  $1,431.  In  the  spring  of  1837,  at 
our  first  municipal  election,  the  city  alone  cast  709  votes.* 

It  seems  not  to  be  generally  known  that,  up  to  the  time 
of  the  opening  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  Chicago 
was  not  at  all  troubled  with  mosquitoes;  a  blessing  which 
amply  compensated  for  many  of  our  early  deprivations. 

*  For  list  of  names  on  the  poll-book,  see  "  Fergus'  Directory  for  1839." 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  2/ 

The  history  of  Chicago  furnishes  one  with  a  complete 
history  of  an  irredeemable  paper-money  system.  Emigra- 
tion was  fast  tending  westward  in  1835.  Government  land 
was  $1.25  per  acre.  The  emigrants  had  little  or  no 
money,  and  would  purchase  land  on  credit  at  greatly  ad- 
vanced prices.  Eastern  speculators  flocked  here  and  took 
advantage  of  this  condition  of  things.  The  Government 
money  received  for  lands  would  be  deposited  in  the  banks, 
credited  to  the  Government,  and  then  reloaned  back  to 
speculators.  Thus  the  Governmettt  had  credits  in  banks 
to  more  than  the  amount  of  their  capital,  and  their  assets 
consisted  almost  entirely  of  the  notes  of  Western  specu- 
lators. The  Government  was  out  of  debt,  and  had  no  use 
for  its  surplus,  which  was  forming  the  basis  of  those  large 
speculative  loans,  and  men  became  even  more  excited  and 
reckless  than  were  the  land-operators  here  in  Chicago  at 
the  time  of  the  recent  panic.  Besides,  money  was  taken 
from  every  branch  of  business  to  invest  in  these  Western 
speculations.  The  President  of  the  United  States  had  no 
power  to  stop  the  sales  of  lands  or  to  limit  bank  discounts. 
He  saw  the  immediate  necessity  of  arresting  this  condition 
of  things,  and  he  had  no  other  way  to  do  it  than  to  issue 
an  order  that  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  should  be  re- 
ceived for  the  public  lands.  According  to  an  invariable 
law,  a  redundancy  of  paper  had  driven  the  precious  metals 
out  of  the  country,  and  the  banks  had  not  the  specie 
wherewith  to  redeem  their  bills,  which  were  fast  being  pre- 
sented to  obtain  land-office  money.  The  banks  all  failed, 
and  corporations  and  individuals  issued  certificates  of  in- 
debtedness, which  were  interchanged  as  currency.  States, 
counties,  and  cities  paid  their  debts  in  warrants  upon  an 
empty  treasury.  The  Canal  Commissioners  paid  contract- 
ors in  scrip,  and  the  contractors  paid  their  laborers  in  a 
lesser  scrip,  redeemable  in  the  scrip  of  the  Commissioners. 

Nearly  every  man  in  Chicago  doing  business  was  issuing 
his  individual  scrip,  and  the  city  abounded  with  little 
tickets,  such  as  "Good  at  our  store  for  ten  cents,"  "Good 
for  a  loaf  of  bread,"  "Good  for  a  shave,"  "Good  for  a 
drink,"  etc.,  etc.  When  you  went  out  to  trade,  the  trader 
would  look  over  your  tickets,  and  select  such  as  he  could 
use  to  the  best  advantage.  The  times  for  a  while  seemed 
very  prosperous.  We  had  a  currency  that  was  interchange- 
able, and  for  a  time  we  suffered  no  inconvenience  from  it, 
except  when  we  wanted  some  specie  to  pay  for  our  post- 
age. In  those  days  it  took  25  cents  to  send  a  letter  East.. 


28  REMINISCENCES   OF   KARLV   CHICAGO. 

But  after  a  while  it  was  found  out  that  men  were  over-issu- 
ing. The  barber  had  outstanding  too  many  shaves;  the 
baker  too  many  loaves  of  bread;  the  saloon-keeper  too 
many  drinks,  etc.,  etc.  Want  of  confidence  became  gen- 
eral. Each  man  became  afraid  to  take  the  tickets  of  an- 
other. Some  declined  to  redeem  their  tickets  in  any  way, 
and  some  absconded.  And  people  found  out,  as  is  always 
the  case  where  there  is  a  redundancy  of  paper  money,  that 
they  had  been  extravagant,  had  bought  things  they  did  not 
need,  and  had  run  in  debt  for  a  larger  amount  than  they 
were  able  to  pay.  Of  course,  nearly  everyone  failed,  and 
charged  his  failure  upon  President  Jackson's  specie  circular. 
In  after  times,  I  asked  an  old  settler,  who  was  a  great 
growler  in  those  days,  what  effect  time  had  had  upon  his 
views  of  Gen.  Jackson's  circular.  His  reply  was  that  Gen. 
Jackson  had  spoiled  his  being  a  great  man.  Said  he,  "I 
came  to  Chicago  with  nothing,  failed  for  $100,000,  and 
could  have  failed  for  a  million,  if  he  had  let  the  bubble 
Taurst  in  the  natural  way." 

A  single  instance  will  illustrate  to  what  various  purposes 
those  little  tickets  of  indebtedness  could  be  put.  A  boy 
had  a  ticket  "Good  for  a  drink."  He  dropped  it  into  the 
church  contribution -box,  and  heard  no  more  of  it.  He 
told  another  boy,  who  did  the  same  thing  with  the  same 
result.  That  boy  told  his  sister,  who  told  her  mother,  who 
told  her  husband,  who  deemed  it  his  duty  to  tell  the  Dea- 
con. Meanwhile  the  boys  were  putting  in  the  tickets 
"Good  for  a  drink,"  and  telling  the  other  boys  to  do  the 
same.  The  Deacon,  alive  to  all  the  responsibilities  of  his 
position,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  entered  a  saloon; 
called  the  barkeeper  one  side,  and  asked  him  to  change  a 
$i  scrip,  well  knowing  he  could  not  do  so  unless  it  were  in 
liquor-tickets.  The  saloon-keeper  was  afraid  to  offer  such 
tickets,  and  declined  to  make  the  change,  until  the  Deacon 
gave  him  a  hint  that,  although  he  did  not  stimulate  himself, 
he  thought  he  could  use  the  tickets.  Then,  said  the  Dea- 
con, "I  have  a  curiosity  to  know  the  extent  of  the  circula- 
tion of  these  .tickets,  and  really  wish  you  would  put  a  private 
mark  upon  them,  and  notify  me  when  one  returns."  Think 
of  a  Deacon  putting  such  currency  into  a  contribution-box ! 
But  he  did  it,  and  the  boys  put  in  some  more.  On  Monday 
afternoon,  the  Deacon  was  notified  that  one  of  his  tickets 
had  been  redeemed.  Oh,  what  a  chance  for  a  scandal 
case !  Imagine  that  such  a  thing  had  happened  in  our  day ! 
Think  of  our  enterprising  newsgatherers  calling  upon  a 


BY    HON.  JOHN    \\EXT\YORTH.  29 

Deacon,  and  asking  him  what  was  the  average  time  of  a 
liquor-ticket's  going  from  his  church  contribution-box  to  a 
saloon  I  With  solemn  tread  the  Deacon  made  his  way  to 
his  pastor's  residence,  and  asked  him  what  disposition  he 
made  of  the  various  tickets  taken  from  the  contribution- 
box.  The  reply  was  that  his  wife  assorted  them,  strung 
them  upon  different  strings,  entered  them  upon  a  book, 
and  gave  the  church  credit  as  she  used  any  of  them. 
"And  do  you  say,  my  dear  brother,"  asked  the  Deacon, 
"that  you  have  no  knowledge  of  the  particular  uses  to 
which  these  tickets  have  been  put?"  "  I  do  say  so,"  said 
the  pastor.  The  Deacon  breathed*  freer.  He  had  cleared 
his  pastor,  but  I  have  no  doubt  he  prayed,  "May  the  Lord 
have  mercy  on  his  poor  wife !"  The  wife  was  called,  and 
her  husband  said,  "The  Deacon  wishes  us  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  proceeds  of  the  contribution-box."  "Not 
exactly  so,  my  dear  sister,"  said  the  Deacon;  "but  I  wish 
to  know  for  what  purposes  the  liquor-tickets  have  been 
used."  She  comprehended  the  matter  at  once,  and 
promptly  replied,  "Why,  Deacon,  did  you  want  them?  I 
never  thought  you  were  a  drinking  man.  Now,  as  you 
didn't  have  the  tickets,  will  you  share  with  us  the  proceeds? 
Let  us  all  take  a  drink!"  She  rushed  to  her  pantry, 
brought  out  a  pitcher,  with  tumblers,  and  it  was  filled  with 
— milk !  In  making  the  change  with  her  milkman  his  eyes 
had  fallen  upon  these  tickets,  and  he  said  he  could  use 
them.  Thus  throwing  the  liquor-tickets  into  the  contribu- 
tion-box was  but  a  repetition  of  the  old  adage,  "Evil  be 
thou  my  good."  They  had  discharged  all  the  functions  of 
the  modern  greenback,  even  to  furnishing  a  poorly-paid 
clergyman's  children  with  milk. 

'  Not  long  after  our  Chicago  citizens  were  victimized  by 
another  irredeemable  currency  device.  Michigan  legisla- 
tors thought  that,  while  there  was  not  specie  enough  in  the 
country  for  a  banking  basis,  there  was  land  enough.  So 
they  passed  what  is  known  as  .the  "Real  Estate  Banking 
1  aw."  They  contended  that  real  estate  was  better  than 
i  old  and  silver,  because  a  man  could  not  run  away  with 
r  al  estate.  Chicago  merchants,  business  men,  and  specu- 
L.tors  generally,  instead  of  paying  their  debts  with  their 
money,  bought  Michigan  wild  lands,  had  them  appraised, 
and  then  mortgaged  them  for  bHls,  which  they  brought 
home  to  pay  their  debts  with.  Real  estate,  which  is  gener- 
ally the  first  property  to  feel  the  effects  of  inflated  currency, 
soon  rose  f  in  value,  and  its  owners  paid  Michigan  another 


30  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

visit,  secured  a  higher  appraisal  of  their  lands,  and  ex- 
changed the  second  mortgage  for  some  more  bills.  For 
about  a  year  we  had  excellent  times  again  in  Chicago.  But 
then  confidence  began  to  weaken.  Agents  were  sent  into 
the  country  to  buy  anything  they  could,  provided  Michigan 
money  would  be  taken.  Merchants  would  post  in  their 
windows  a  list  of  bills  that  they  would  receive  for  a  given 
day,  and  then  revise  the  list  for  the  next  day.  The  bubble 
soon  burst,  and  every  one  was  the  poorer  for  the  good  times 
he  had  enjoyed.  Manual  labor,  which  was  the  last  thing 
to  rise,  was  the  last  resting-place  of  the  worthless  bills. 

During  all  this  excitement  incident  to  our  great  variety 
of  irredeemable  paper,  our  sufferings  were  the  greatest  for 
postage  money,  which  had  always  to  be  in  specie,  and 
specie  was  then  at  from  50  to  100  per  cent  premium  in  our 
depreciated  currency.  But  postage  was  then  reckoned  by 
the  sheet  instead  of  by  weight.  The  result  was  that, 
although  friends  wrote  but  seldom,  their  letters  were  a  sort 
of  daily  journal.  When  anything  occurred  to  them,  they 
would  write  it  out ;  and  'when  they  had  filled  a  sheet,  often- 
times writing  crossways  also,  they  mailed  it  as  soon  as  they 
could  raise  the  postage.  In  traveling  at  the  East,  I  have 
fallen  in  with  several  of  these  letters  written  in  early  times, 
whose  publication  would  add  materially  to  the  early  history 
of  our  city.  But  their  contents  were  so  mixed  up  with 
private  matters  appertaining  to  different  families  that  it  is 
impossible  to  obtain  possession  of  them.  As  our  laboring 
men  were  paid  in  currency,  it  often  took  more  than  a  day's 
work  to  pay  the  postage  on  a  letter  to  an  Eastern  friend. 

I  will  relate  an  anecdote  to  illustrate  this  matter.  Soon 
after  my  first  election  to  Congress,  a  young  man  who  had 
rendered  me  material  service,  made  me  a  call,  and  ob- 
served that  postage  was  very  high;  in  which  sentiment  I 
concurred,  and  promised  to  labor  to  reduce  it.  He  then 
remarked  that  I  would  have  the  franking  privilege;  to 
which  I  assented,  and  promised  to  labor  to  abolish  it. 
But  all  this  did  not  seem  to  interest  the  young  man,  and  I 
was  perplexed  to  know  the  drift  of  his  conversation. 
Finally,  with  great  embarrassment,  he  observed  that  he  was 
engaged  to  a  young  lady  at  the  East,  and  wanted  to  know 
if  I  could  not  frank  his  letters.  I  explained  that  there  was 
but  one  way  to  avoid  the  responsibilities  of  the  law,  and 
that  was  for  him  to  write  his  letters  to  me,  and  then  I 
could  write  a  letter  to  her,  calling  her  attention  to  his;  and 
she  could  have  the  same  privilege.  The  correspondence 


BY    HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  31 

took  this  fonn  until  the  Congressman  from  her  district 
asked  me  if,  at  the  close  of  the  session,  I  was  going  home 
by  the  way  of  his  district.  I  did  not  comprehend  him 
until  he  stated  that  he  was  well  acquainted  in  the  family  of 
the  lady  with  whom  I  had  been  corresponding,  and  sug- 
gested that,  if  I  was  going  to  be  married  before  the  next 
session,  it  would  be  pleasant  for  us  to  board  at  the  same 
house !  This  put  a  new  phase  upon  my  way  of  dodging  an 
abuse  of  the  franking  privilege,  and  I  wrote  to  my  constit- 
uent that  he  must  bring  his  courtship  to  a  close,  and  he 
did  so.  Four  letters  from  him  and  three  from  her  covered 
the  transaction,  and  I  stand  indebted  to  this  day  to  the 
"conscience-fund"'  of  the  Post-Office  Department  for  $1.75. 
But  this  was  a  very  insignificant  sum  to  pay  for  the  secur- 
ing of  a  good  Yankee  girl  to  the  West  in  those  days. 
Besides,  there  are  seven  in  the  family  now,  and  one  went 
to  the  War;  and  that  $1.75  was  an  insignificant  bounty  to 
pay  for  a  soldier.  After  all,  the  best  way  to  procure  sol- 
diers is  to  breed  them  yourself.  But  every  time  any  one 
speaks  to  me  about  the  corruptions  and  defalcations  among 
public  men  of  the  present  day,  I  see  "mene,  mene,  tekel, 
upharsin"  written  on  the  wall!  I  think  of  that  $1.75,  and 
say  nothing. 

Not  satisfied  with  the  real  estate  banking  experiment  in 
Michigan,  of  trying  to  make  easy  times  without  prompt 
specie  redemption,  some  of  the  speculators  of  Illinois 
thought  that  they  would  try  the  Michigan  system,  with 
State  bonds  substituted  for  lands.  The  result  of  this  last 
experiment  is  too  familiar  to  the  mass  of  our  citizens  to 
need  an  extended  comment.  Money  was  borrowed,  and 
State  bonds  were  purchased.  The  most  inaccessible  places 
in  our  State  were  sought  out  for  the  location  of  banks,"  and 
bills  were  extensively  issued.  Money  was  abundant,  prices 
of  everything  advanced,  and  a  financial  millenium  was  once 
more  among  us.  The  consequences  of  this  system  were' 
quite  as  disastrous  as  those  of  the  real  estate  system  of 
Michigan.  Considering  its  age,  Chicago  has  been  the 
greatest  sufferer  of  any  place  in  the  world  from  an  irre- 
deemable paper-money  system.  Its  losses  in  this  respect 
will  nearly  approximate  those  from  the  great  fire.  And 
when  you  talk  to  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago  about 
the  advantages  accruing  from  an  irredeemable  money  sys- 
tem, you  waste  your  labor.  He  has  been  there ! 

One  of  our  early  amusements  was  that  of  wolf-hunting. 
Experienced  Indian  ponies  were  plenty  in  our  city.     The 


32  REMINISCENCKS    OF    KARLY   CHICAGO. 

last  hunt  I  remember  had  for  its  object  the  driving  of  as 
large  a  number  of  wolves  as  possible  up  to  the  ice  upon  the 
lake  shore,  and  as  near  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  as  could 
be  done.  There  was  to  be  no  shooting  until  the  wolves 
had  got  upon  the  ice.  No  person  was  to  fire  unless  his 
aim  was  entirely  over  ice,  and  then  to  the  eastward.  Two 
parties  started  early  in  the  morning,  one  following  the  lake 
shore  south,  and  the  other  the  river,  to  meet  at  a  common 
centre  not  far  from  Blue  Island.  Then  they  were  to 
spread  themselves  out,  cover  as  much  territory  as  possible, 
and  drive  the  wolves  before  them.  About  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  a  wolf  made  his  appearance  in  the  outskirts  of 
the  city.  The  news  was  spread,  and  our  people  turned  out 
on  foot,  keeping  along  the  margin  of  the  river,  so  as  to 
drive  the  wolves  upon  the  ice  of  the  lake  shore.  One  wolf 
after  another  made  his  appearance,  and  soon  we  saw  the 
horsemen.  The  number  of  wolves  was  about  the  Same  as 
that  of  Samson's  foxes.  The  men  were  so  eager  to  get  the 
first  fire  at  a  wolf  that  the  tramp  of  their  horses  broke  the 
ice;  and,  as  the  wind  was  rather  brisk,  it  broke  away  from 
the  shore,  with  the  wolves  upon  it,  and  drifted  northeast- 
erly, very  much  in  the  same  direction  as  that  taken  by  the 
recent  unfortunate  balloon.  But  the  wolves,  unlike  the 
man  in  the  balloon,  took  no  reporter  on  board.'  Men, 
women,  and  children  lined  the  bank  of  the  lake,  expecting 
to  see  the  ice  break  in  pieces  and  the  wolves  swim  ashore. 
But  it  did  not  do  so.  Our  people  watched  the  ice,  and 
could  see  the  wolves  running  from  side  to  side,  until  they 
faded  away  from  view.  When  I  took  my  last  look,  they 
appeared  about  the  size  of  mice. 

About  two  weeks  afterwards,  a  letter  appeared  in  a 
Defroit  paper  containing  an  account  of  some  farm  settle- 
ments, on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  being 
attacked  by  a  large  body  of  hungry  wolves.  They  de- 
stroyed fowls  and  cattle,  and. for  several  days  spread  terror 
through  the  neighborhood.  We  always  supposed  that 
those  were  our  wolves,  but  our  hunters  never  laid  any 
claim  to  them,  as  the  news  of  their  arrival  was  so  long  in 
reaching  here.  And  as  an  evidence  of  the  tardy  transit  of 
merchandise  and  mails,  in  those  days,  I  will  state  that  our 
newspapers  of  September,  1835,  announce  the  arrival  of  a 
schooner,  with  goods,  twenty  days  from  New  York  City, 
the  shortest  time  ever  made.  A  newspaper  of  Dec.  24, 
1836,  announces  that  President  Jackson's  message  to  Con- 
gress was-  only  twelve  days  on  its  route  from  Washington. 


BY   HON.  JOHN    WEXTWORTH.  33 

It  was  published  here  Saturday,  but  the  editor  says  he 
would  have  issued  it  on  Thursday,  but  for  the  extreme  cold 
weather. 

The  first  divorce  suit  in  our  city  was  brought  in  1835. 

Land  speculation  had  become  so  brisk  here  in  1835,  tnat 
from  Jan.  4th  to  Oct.  2ist  of  that  year,  the  papers  announce 
that  Augustus  Garrett  (afterward  mayor  of  the  city)  had 
sold  land  at  his  auction-rooms  to  the  amount  of  $1,800,000. 
Our  people  had  commenced  litigation  so  much  that  at  the 
commencement  of  Cook  county  circuit  court  in  May,  1836, 
there  were  230  cases  on  the  civil  docket,  and  the  court  sat 
two  weeks.  Litigation  so  increased  that  in  May,  1837, 
there  were  700  cases  on  the  civil  docket.  The  newspapers 
pointed  to  the  alarming  fact  that  over  a  million  dollars  were 
involved  in  these  cases. 

The  West  Side  was  the  last  to  advance  in  population. 
Although  at  one  time,  prior  to  the  city's  incorporation,  it 
undoubtedly  had,  as  it  does  now,  the  largest  portion  of  our 
inhabitants,  there  were  only  97  voters  on  the  whole  West 
Side  at  our  first  municipal  election.  These  were  mostly 
from  our  first  families,  as  there  were  living  there  about  that 
time  three  Indian  chiefs,  Sauganash,  Laframboise,  and 
Robinson,  (whose  Indian  name  was  Che-che-pin-gua),  with 
occasional  visits  from  Shaboneh ;  and  any  number  of 
Indians,  French,  and  mixed  breeds  related  to  them.  The 
West  Side  was  the  last  side  to  have  a  piano,  but  the  strains 
of  the  fiddle  were  always  to  be  heard,  and  the  war-dance  was 
no  uncommon  thing.  I  remember  attending  the  wedding 
of  one  of  Laframboise's  daughters.  She  was  married  to  a 
clerk  in  the  post-office,  and  is  now  the  wife  of  Medard  B. 
Beaubien,  heretofore  alluded  to  in  this  lecture.  The  clerk 
was  the  one  who  delivered  letters,  and  of  course  was  well 
known  to  all  our  citizens,  and  was  remarkably  popular. 
He  went  to  the  printing  office  and  had  50  cards  of  invita- 
tion struck  off.  But  when  people  went  for  their  letters,  they 
politely  hinted  that  they  expected  a  card  of  invitation  to 
the  wedding.  So  he  was  compelled  to  go  to  the  printing 
office  and  have  50  more  struck  off.  These  did  not  last  long, 
and  he  had  100  more.  Then  he  said  that  tickets  were  of 
no  use,  and  everybody  might  come ;  and  about  everyone 
did  come.  The  ceremony  was  performed  by  Rev.  Isaac  W. 
Hallam.  pastor  of  the  St.  James'  Episcopal  church  of  this 
city.  Everything  was  high-toned,  well  worthy  of  an  Indian 
chiefs  daughter.  The  house  was  of  no  particular  use,  as 


34  REMINISCENCES   OF    EARLY   CHICAGO. 

it  was  full  and  surrounded  with  people.  This  wedding  made 
a  strong  impression  on  my  mind,  as  it  was  the  first  time  I 
ever  saw  the  Indian  war-dance.  Some  of  the  guests  not 
only  had  their  tomahawks  and  scalping-knives,  bows  and 
arrows,  but  a  few  of  them  had  real  scalps  which  they  pre- 
tended they  had  taken  in  the  various  Indian  wars.  Their 
faces  were  decorated  with  all  the  favorite  pictures  of  the 
Indians.  And  some  of  our  young  white  men  and  ladies 
played  the  part  of  the  Indian  so  well  that  it  was  difficult  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  real  ones.  It  has  been  a  wonder 
to  me  that,  while  our  professors  of  music  have  been  invent- 
ing so  many  different  kind  of  dances,  none  of  them  have 
reproduced  the  Indian  war-dance,  which  to  me  is  much 
more  sensible  than  nine-tenths  of  those  which  are  now 
practiced  at  so  many  of  our  fashionable  parties.  I  presume 
that  the  trouble  is,  that  our  ladies  consider  that  the  Indian 
war-paint  extemporized  for  the  occasion,  would  interfere 
with  the  original  paint  put  on  before  they  left  their  homes, 
and  which  they  wished  to  remain  through  the  evening. 
One  of  our  young  men  claimed  that,  at  this  wedding,  amid 
the  crowd,  unperceived,  he  had  clipped  a  lock  from  the 
bride's  long,  flowing,  raven  hair.  Some  of  this  hair  he  had 
put  into  a  breast  pin,  and  very  soon  thereafter,  these 
Indian  bridal  breast-pins  were  about  as  thick  as  were  the 
manufactures  from  our  old  court-house  bell  after  the  fire. 
One  man  who  had  worn  one  far  some  years  was  suddenly 
taken  sick,  and  expected  to  die.  He  called  his  wife  to  his 
bedside,  and  told  her  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  state  to  her 
that  he  had  been  deceiving  her  for  years,  and  he  could  not 
die  in  peace  until  he  had  made  a  confession.  "  I  must  tell 
you  before  I  die,  that  the  hair  in  that  pin  I  have  been 
wearing  so  deceitfully,  is  not  the  hair  of  that  Indian  chief's 
daughter,  but  your  own."  With  pitiful  eyes  he  looked  to 
his  wife  for  forgiveness.  "And  is  that  all  that  troubles  you  ?" 
said  she;  "what  you  have  just  revealed  in  your  dying 
hour,  only  confirms  my  opinion  of  you.  I  always  supposed 
you  thought  more  of  me  than  you  did  of  a  squaw  !"  And 
now  I  suppose  you  think  that  that  man  died  in  peace. 
But  he  did  not.  He  is  alive  now.  There  is  occasionally 
an  instance  where  a  man  has  survived  a  confession  to  his 
wife.  But  where,  oh  where,  is  there  an  instance  of  a  woman 
who  has  survived  a  confession  to  her  husband  ? 

After  the  marriage  of  this  Indian  chief's  daughter,  several 
of  our  wealthy  citizens  (wealthy  for  those  days)  gave  return 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  35 

parties.  I  remember  attending  a  very  elegant  one  given  at 
the  house  of  Medard  B.  Beaubien.  I  think  the  fashionable 
society  of  Chicago  subsisted  for  about  two  months  upon 
that  wedding.  Mr.  Beaubien  has  given  me  several  invita- 
tions, as  he  has  others  of  our  old  settlers,  to  visit  him  at  his 
residence  among  the  Pottawatomies.  He  told  me  that  I 
would  be  a  big  Pottawatomie !  He  gave  as  a  reason  for 
abandoning  Chicago,  where  he  was  a  merchant,  that  he 
would  rather  be  a  big  Indian  than  a  little  white  man.  He 
has  the  reputation  of  being  the  handsomest  man  that  was 
ever  in  this  city.  I  met  him  at  Washington,  a  few  years 
ago,  and  he  attracted  great  attention  for  his  remarkable 
personal  beauty. 

The  most  of  the  families  of  wealth,  education,  and  high 
social  position,  about  the  time  of  our  incorporation,  were 
settled  on  the  North  Side.  The  "  Lake  House"  there  was 
the*  first  brick  hotel  constructed  in  our  city,  and  it  was  as 
well  furnished  and  conducted  as  any  hotel  west  of  New 
York  city.  Upon  the  South  Side  were  most  of  the  business 
houses,  and  hotels  that  were  kept  for  the  accommodation 
of  farmers  who  came  to  Chicago  with  their  loads  of  grain. 
Business  men  without  families,  clerks,  and  employes  of 
business  men,  generally  boarded  at  these  hotels  on  the 
South  Side,  often  sleeping  in  the  stores.  We  could  not 
have  anything  like  a  large  party  on  the  South  Side  without 
female  domestics.  The  fashionable  people  on  the  North 
Side  would  invite  our  young  men  to  their  parties  on  that 
:side ;  but  when  we  had  a  party  on  the  South  Side,  instead 
of  coming  themselves,  the  ladies  would  send  their  domes- 
tics. And  if  I  were  to  go  into  details  of  the  origin  of  the 
fashionable  society  of  Chicago  of  the  present  day,  I  could 
satisfy  our  young  men  that  whether  they  wanted  to  make 
money  or  raise  healthy  children,  the  best  thing  they  could 
now  do  would  be  to  imitate  the  example  of  some  of  our 
early  settlers,  and  marry  a  lady  who  dares  discharge  an  im- 
pudent or  incompetent  maid,  and  can  do  the  work  herself 
till  she  can  get  a  better  one. 

There  was  considerable  ill-feeling  at  one  time  between 
the  North  and  South  Sides  in  consequence  of  this  discrim- 
ination. But  politics  then,  as  now,  proved  a  great  leveler 
in  society.  There  was  an  elegant  party  given  at  the  Lake 
House  one  evening,  where  one  of  the  most  fashionable  men 
on  the  North  Side,  who  was  a  candidate  for  office,  thought 
he  would  throw  an  anchor  to  the,  windward  by  dancing 


36  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

with  a  South  Side  dressing-maid,  while  he  supposed  his  wife- 
was  being  entertained  at  the  supper-table.  But  she  enter- 
ed the  ball-room  while  the  dance  was  going  on.  At  once  a 
proud  heart  was  fired.  Quicker  than  thought  she  spoke  to^ 
a  carriage-driver  who  stood  at  the  door  looking  in  :  "  Can 
you  dance,  Mike?"  "It's  only  for  the  want  of  a  partner," 
was  the  response.  Seizing  him  by  the  hand,  she  said, 
"  Come  on  !"  and  turning  to  the  crowd  she  said,  "  This  is  a 
game  that  two  can  play  at !"  and  immediately  the  dance 
went  on,  amid  •  the  applause  of  the  whole  room ;  the  man 
with  the.  South  Side  dressing-maid,  and  his  wife  with  the 
South  Side  driver.  And  thus  free  suffrage  began  its  work 
against  artificial  social  position. 

Not  long  after  my  first  election  to  Congress,  upon  open- 
ing my  mail  at  Washington,  I  found  a  letter  dated  in  the 
western  part  of  Iowa,  then  far  in  the  wilderness,  reading  in 
this  way : 

"  MY  DEAR  OLD  CHICAGO  FRIEND  :  I  see  you  have  been 
getting  up  in  the  world,  and  it  is  so  with  myself,  who  am 
the  sheriff's  deputy  here,  and  I  also  keep  hotel.  I  am  the 
same  one  who  made  all  the  fuss  dancing  with  the  lady  at 
the  Lake  House  ball,  and  you  were  there ;  and  the  girl  I 
married  is  the 'same  domestic  her  husband  danced  with. 
The  judge  of  the  court  boards  at  our  house,  and  he  often 
dances  with  my  wife  at  the  big  parties  here,  where  we  are 
considered  among  the  first  folks,  and  I  reckon  my  wife 
Bridget  would  put  on  as  many  airs  as  the  lady  did  at  the 
Lake  House,  if  she  should  catch  me  dancing  with  do- 
mestics. I  found  out  that  those  people  who  made  so  much 
fuss  at  the  Lake  House  were  not  considered  much  where 
they  came  from.  But  they  emigrated  to  Chicago,  and 
then  set  up  for  big  folks.  So  I  thought  I  would  marry 
Bridget  and  start  for  a  new  country  where  I  could  be  as  big 
as  anybody.  And  now  remember  your  old  Chicago  friend, 
and  tell  the  President  that  I  am  for  his  administration,  and 
would  like  to  get  the  post-office  here." 

I  remember  that,  during  that  session  of  Congress  1 
boarded  at  the  same  house  with  Horace  Greeley,  and  he 
was  frequently  in  my  room;  and  I  think  that  it  was  from 
this  letter  he  borrowed  his  sentiment,  "Go  west,  young 
man  !" 

In  our  early  times,  it  was  customary  to  excommunicate 
members  of  the  church  as  publicly  as  they  had  been 
admitted.  Now  we  he,ar  of  admissions,  but  never  of  ex- 


BY    HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  37 

•communications.  Professor  David  Swing  has  come  as  near 
filling  that  bill  as  anyone  we  have  heard  of  recently,  but 
future  historians  will  differ  as  to  whether  he  excommuni- 
cated the  church  or  the  church  him.  I  remember  in  early 
times  here  of  a  clergyman's  dealing,  at  the  close  of  his 
service,  with  a  member,  one  of  our  well-known  citizens, 
somewhat  after  this  fashion:  "You  will  remember,  my 
hearers,  that  some  time  ago  Mr.  Blank  was  proposed  for 
admission  to  this  church,  and  after  he  had  passed  a  favor- 
able examination  I  called  upon  everyone  present  to  know 
if  there  was  any  objection,  and  no  one  rose  and  .objected. 
It  becomes  my  painful  duty  now  to  pronounce  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  upon  him,  and  to  remand  him  back,  to 
the  world  again  with  all  his  sins  upon  his  head."  Where- 
upon a  gentleman  rose  in  his  pew  and  said:  "And  now  the 
world  objects  to  receiving  him  !"  On  which  bursts  of 
laughter  filled  the  house;  and  the  precise  status  of  that 
man  was  never  determined,  as  the  civil  courts  in  those  days 
had  not  begun  to  interfere  in  ecclesiastical  matters.  In 
these  times  the  church  would  undoubtedly  have  called 
upon  the  courts  to  grant  a  mandamus  upon  the  world  to 
receive  him,  or  the  world  would  have  applied  for  an 
injunction  to  prevent  the  church  from  excommunicating 
him. 

In  most  new  settlements  there  can  always  be  pointed  out 
some  particular  class  who  give  tone  to  the  early  society; 
such  as  the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  of  New  England,  the 
Knickerbockers  of  New  York,  the  Huguenots  of  South  Car- 
olina, the  Creoles  of  New  Orleans;  and,  in  the  later  days, 
men  identified  with  manufacturing  interests,  mining  inter- 
ests, railroad  interests,  or  with  seminaries  of  learning.  But 
here  in  Chicago,-  in  early  times,  we  had  not  any  one 
prevailing  class  or  interest;  nor  was  there  any  sufficient 
number  of  people  from  any  particular  locality  to  exercise  a 
controlling  influence  in  moulding  public  sentiment.  We 
had  people  from  almost  every  clime,  and  of  almost  every 
opinion.  We  had  Jews  and  Christians,  Protestants,  Catho- 
lics, and  infidels;  among  Protestants,  there  were  Calvinists 
,and  Armenians.  Nearly  every  language  was  represented 
here.  Some  people  had  seen  much  of  the  world,  and  some 
very  little.  Some  were  quite  learned,  and  some  very  igno- 
rant. We  had  every  variety  of  people,  and  out  of  these  we 
had  to  construct  whaf  is  called  society.  The  winters  were 
.4ong;  no  railroads,  no  telegraphs,  no  canal,  and  all  we  had 


38  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

to  rely  upon  for  news  were  our  weekly  newspapers.  We 
had  no  libraries,  no  lectures,  no  theatres  or  other  places 
of  amusement.  If  a  stranger  attended  a  gathering  of  any 
kind,  the  mass  of  attendants  were  equally  strangers  with 
himself;  and  the  gentlemen  outnumbered  the  ladies  by 
about  four  or  five  to  one.  You  ask  what  society  lived 
upon  in  those  days?  I  answer,  upon  faith.  But  faith 
without  works  is  dead.  From  the  close  to  the  opening  of 
navigation,  nearly  six  months  in  the  year,  we  had  nothing 
to  do.  Our  faith  consisted  principally  in  the  future  of 
Chicago.  Nearly  every  one  had  laid  out  a  town,  and  men 
exchanged  lots  with  each  other,  very  much  as  boys  swap 
jagk-knives.  The  greatest  story-teller  was  about  as  big  a  man 
as  we  had.  If  a  new  story  was  told,  it  was  soon  passed  all 
round  town,  and  due  credit  given  to  the  originator.  If  a 
new  book  appeared  in  our  midst,  that  was  loaned  around 
until  another  new  one  came  to  take  its  place.  Occasion- 
ally, one  of  our  young  men  would  go  East  and  get  him 
a  wife,  and  then  we  discussed  her  for  a  while.  Dress- 
makers would  invariably  make  her  the  first  call,  examine 
her  dresses,  and  then  go  from  door  to  door,  like  a  modern 
census-taker  or  tax-collector,  soliciting  orders  according  to- 
the  latest  fashions. 

There  was  great  prejudice  between  the  emigrants  from 
the  South  and  those  from  the  East.  All  our  Eastern  peo- 
ple were  considered  by  the  emigrants  from  the  South  as- 
Yankees.  The  first  contest  was  about  the  convention  sys- 
tem in  politics.  Southerners  denounced  it  vehemently  as 
a  Yankee  innovation  upon  the  old  system  of  allowing  every- 
man  to  run  for  office  who  wanted  to  do  so,  and  taking 
his  chances.  Their  system  was  to  solicit  their  friends  to 
solicit  them  to  run  for  office,  and  then  they  reluctantly 
consented,  and  placed  themselves  in  the  hands  of  their 
friends.  All  Yankee  customs,  fashions,  and  innovations 
upon  their  established  usages  were  ridiculed  as  Yankee 
notions,  worthy  only  of  the  peddlers  of  wooden  clocks 
and  pewter  spoons. 

Thomas  Ford,  born  in  Uniontown,  Penn.,  in  1800,  who 
had  lived  in  Illinois  from  1804,  and  whose  father  had  been 
killed  by  the  Indians,  came  here  as  Judge,  and  did  more 
than  any  other  person  to  mollify  the  prejudices  of  the 
South  against  the  North.  He  early  foresaw  that  all  that 
the  early  settlers  of  Illinois  needed,  was  the  growth  of  more 
Yankee  thrift  among  them;  and  he  early  told  his  friends. 


KY    HON.  JUHX    \VENTWORTH.  39 

that  while  he  stayed  here  he  was  going  to  conform  to  all 
the  Yankee  notions,  as  fast  as  he  could  ascertain  what  they 
were,  and  wanted  his  acquaintances  io  inform  him  what  he 
should  do  to  prevent  embarrassment  by  non-conformity. 
I  met  him  on  his  way  to  Court  one  morning,  and  he  said 
he  had  just  been  detained  by  a  lady  complaining  that  he 
did  not  attend  her  party  on  a  previous  evening.  He  told 
her  that  he  was  very  fond  of  parties,  and  always  attended 
them  whenever  he  could,  but  that  he  held  Court  that  even- 
ing until  it  was  too  late  to  go.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  her. 
She  wanted  to  know,  if  he  could  not  attend,  why  he  did 
not  send  a  "regret."  He  did  not  understand  the  matter, 
and  made  an  excuse  that  the  Court  was  waiting,  informing 
her  that  he  would  converse  with  her  some  other  time. 
•'But,"  said  he,  "what's  that?  What  did  she  want  me  to 
do  when  I  couldn't  go?"  I  informed  him  that  the  lady 
had  some  sisters  visiting  her  from  the  East,  and  she  had  a 
pride  in  having  them  write  home  that  among  her  friends 
were  the  very  best  people  in  Chicago,  and  among  them  the 
Judge  of  the  Court;  which  in  his  absence,  a  little  note  from 
him  would  establish.  "Capital,  capital,''  said  he.  "Why 
you  Yankees  have  a  motive  in  all  you  do.  You  turn  every- 
thing to  account.  The  longer  I  live  among  Yankees  the 
more  I  see  why  it  is  that  they  are  getting  rich  and  overrun- 
ning the  country.  Nobody  shall  complain  of  me  hereafter 
in  that  respect.  I'll  have  some  note-paper  in  my  desk, 
and  if  the  lawyers  detain  me,  I'll  send  the  Sheriff  with  one 
of  those  little  billet-doux.  If  there  is  any  other  thing 
that  you  Yankees  want  me  to  do  to  testify  my  high  appre- 
ciation of  .you,  please  let  me  know."  The  next  day  the 
Judge  called  at  my  office  with  a  beautiful  little  note,  on 
gilt-edged  paper,  addressed  to  his  wife,  and  reading  as  fol- 
lows: "Judge  Ford's  compliments  to  Mrs.  Ford  and  the 
children,  and  regrets  that  he  cannot  be  home  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  their  society  on  Monday  next."  Below  this 
was  the  following  postscript:  "The  above  is  one  of  the 
Yankee  notions,  and  when  you  want  to  go  anywhere  and 
cannot,  you  must  always  send  one  of  these,  which  they 
call  a  'regret.'  Please  tell  this  to  the  neighbors,  and  also 
tell  them  that  when  I  return  I  shall  have  a  great  many 
stories  to  tell  them  about  different  Yankee  notions." 

Xot  long  after,  I  was  at  Oregon,  Ogle  County,  where  he 
resided,  and  where  he  was  then  holding  Court.  When  it 
became  time  for  the  Sheriff  to  adjourn  the  Court,  the 


40  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

Judge  said,  "Mr.  Sheriff,  don't  forget  that  party  at  my 
house  to-night."  And  the  Sheriff  exclaimed,  "Hear  ye  I 
Hear  ye!  The  Judge  of  this  Court  requests  me  to  say, 
that  he  and  his  lady  would  be  pleased  to  see  you  all  at  his 
house  to-night,  both  citizens  and  strangers !  Now  this  hon- 
orable Court  stands  adjourned  until  to-morrow  morning  at 
9  o'clock."  It  was  wonderful  to  notice  the  mixture  of 
people  who  unceremoniously  visited  him  that  evening — 
attorneys,  jurors,  suitors,  and  citizens  generally,  with  their 
wives.  One  person  seemed  as  much  at  home  as  another. 
There  was  a  grand  welcome  for  all.  He  was  the  very 
prince  of  hospitality.  His  small  house  could  not  contain 
the  crowd,  and  many  stood  outside  and  mingled  in  the 
entertainments.  The  Judge  passed  through  the  assembly 
with  a  waiter  on  which  was  a  decanter  of  Madeira  wine, 
and  wine-glasses.  His  wife  passed  around  with  another 
waiter  loaded  with  cake.  Said  the  Judge  to  some  Yankee 
gentlemen,  "This  is  the  way  we  original  Illinoisans  give  a 
party.  We  invite  all;  the  latch-string  is  out;  all  come  who 
can,  and  those  who  cannot  come  say  nothing.  They  never 
write  any  'regrets.'  Indeed,  a  great  many  of  our  prominent 
men  at  the  South  could  not  do  it.  I  have  known  men  in 
our  Legislature  who  could  not  write."  Then  he  passed 
away  into  a  group  of  people  who  were  natives  of  the  South, 
and  told  them  how  he  got  himself  into  trouble  with  a  Chi- 
cago lady  by  not  writing  her  a  little  billet-doux  explaining 
to  her  why  he  did  not  go  to  her  party,  when  he  wanted  to 
go  more  than  she  wanted  to  have  him.  He  often  uttered 
the  sentiment  that  he  did  not  wish  to  live  in  a  locality 
where  his  house  was  not  large  enough  to  entertain  his 
neighbors  without  making  selections.  He  said  he  must 
either  build  .him  a  larger  house  or  move  into  a  distant 
settlement.  When  1  came  away  I  expressed  the  wish 
that  I  might  soon  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  and  his 
neighbors  in  Chicago.  Whereupon  the  Judge  jocosely 
observed,  "We  will  either  come  and  see  you  or  send  you  a 
billet-doux."  But  a  Southern  Illinoisan,  a  native  of  North 
Carolina,  exclaimed,  "Yes,  when  you  Yankee  peddlers  are 
putting  up  wooden  clocks  and  pewter  spoons  for  this 
region,  tell  them  to  put  up  a  little  gold-edged  note-paper  for 
us,  and  have  them  to  be  sure  that  the  gold  isn't  bronze  '." 

But  the  people  of  this  State  settled  the  house  question 
for  Judge  Ford.  For,  at  the  next  Gubernatorial  election, 
he  was  made  its  Chief  Magistrate,  and  as  Governor  he 


BY    HON.  JOHN    \\  KXT\YORTH.  41 

rendered  his  name  dear  to  every  Illinoisan  by  his  almost 
superhuman,  but  eminently  successful,  efforts  to  complete 
the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  and  to  restore  the  lost 
credit  of  our  State.  He  died  not  long  after  the  expiration 
of  his  term  of  office,  and  left  to  his  children  only  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  copyright  of  his  History  of  Illinois, — a  book 
which,  when  once  commenced,  no  reader  will  lay  aside 
until  he  has  finished  it.  In  this  work  is  the  only  authorita- 
tive history  of  the  settlement  of  the  Mormons  in  this  State, 
and  their  final  expulsion  of  it,  with  lie  assassination  of 
their  leader,  Joseph  Smith.  In  his  preface  he  says:  "The 
author  has  written  about  small  events  and  little  men.  And 
in  all  those  matters  in  which  the  author  has  figured  person- 
ally, it  will  be  some  relief  to  the  reader  to  find  that  he  has 
not  attempted  to  blow  himself  up  into  a  great  man." 

One  of  our  most  reliable  places  of  entertainment  was  the 
Post-Office  while  the  mail  was  being  opened.  The  Post- 
Office  was  on  the  west  side  of  Franklin  street,  cornering  on 
South  Water  street.  The  mail  coach  was  irregular  in  the 
time  of  its  arrival,  but  the  horn  of  the  driver  announced  its 
approach.  Then  the  people  would  largely  assemble  at  the 
Post-Office,  and  wait  for  the  opening  of  the  mails,  which  at 
times,  were  very  heavy.  The  Postmaster  would  throw  out 
a  New  York  paper,  and  some  gentleman  with  a  good  pair  of 
lungs  and  a  jocose  temperament  would  mount  a  dry-goods 
box  and  commence  reading.  Occasionally  I  occupied  that 
position  myself.  During  exciting  times,  our  leading  men  would 
invariably  go  to  the  Post-Office  themselves,  instead  of  send- 
ing their  employes.  The  news  would  be  discussed  by  the 
assemblage,  and  oftentimes  heavy  bets  would  be  made,  and 
angry  words  passed.  If  it  was  election  times,  there  would 
be  two  papers  thrown  out,  of  opposite  politics,  two  reading 
stands  established,  two  readers  engaged,  and  the  men  of 
each  party  would  assemble  around  their  own  reader.  This 
condition  of  things  would  last  until  the  mails  were  opened, 
when  the  gathering  would  adjourn  until  the  next  blowing  of 
the  driver's  horn.  This  gathering  afforded  the  best  oppor- 
tunity for  citizens  to  become  acquainted  one  with  another. 

On  one  of  these  occasions,  I  was  introduced  to  a  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  army  who  had  just  come  to  take  charge  of  the 
Government  works  in  this  city.  He  had  great  confidence 
in  our  future,  and  expressed  his  intention  to  invest  all  his 
means  here.  He  was  eventually  ordered  away  to  some 
other  station,  but  kept  up  his  interest  in  Chicago.  His 


42  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

taxes  became  high,  too  high  in  proportion  to  his  pay  as  an 
army  officer  and  the  support  of  his  family.  His  wife  had 
once  placed  the  price  of  a  new  dress  in  a  letter  which  was 
to  leave  by  the  return  of  a  mail  which  brought  her  husband 
an  exorbitant  tax -bill.  He  expressed  his  intention  of 
ordering,  by  the  same  mail,  the  sale  of  his  Chicago  pro- 
perty, as  his  means  could  endure  his  taxes  no  longer.  His 
wife  ordered  her  letter  from  the  mail,  took  out  the  money, 
and,  saying  that  she  preferred  the  Chicago  property  to  a 
new  dress,  insisted  fhat  he  should  use  it  to  pay  his  Chicago 
taxes.  The  next  summer  he  visited  our  city,  and  rented  his 
property  for  enough  to  pay  the  taxes.  That  lady  lost  her 
dress  for  that  year,  but  she  gained  thereby  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  celebrated  (Kingsbury)  estates  in  our  city. 
I  mention  this  fact  to  warn  our  ladies  that  they  should 
never  ask  for  a  new  dress  until  they  find  their  husband's 
tax-receipt  in  his  wallet;  and,  at  the  same  time,  I  would 
caution  husbands  not  to  try  to  carry  so  much  real  estate 
as  to  make  their  poorly-clad  wives  and  children  objects  of 
charity  when  they  make  their  appearance  in  the  streets. 

Our  early  settlers  were  distinguished  for  their  liberal 
patronage  of  all  religious  denominations,  and  we  had  one 
clergyman  who  created  as  much  sensation  as  any  we  have 
had  since  his  day.  Like  all  really  influential  sensational 
preachers,  he  was  an  original.  He  dealt  freely  in  pathos 
and,  in  ridicule.  If  we  cried  once,  we  were  sure  to  laugh 
once,  in  every  sermon.  Unlike  clergymen  now  called  sen- 
sational, he  never  quoted  poetry,  nor  told  anecdotes,  nor 
used  slang  phrases,  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a  laugh. 
There  was  nothing  second-handed  about  him.  I  allude  to 
Rev.  Isaac  T.  Hinton,  a  Baptist  clergyman,  who  was  the 
only  settled  minister  on  the  South  Side  when  I  came  here 
in  1836.  His  residence  was  near  the  corner  of  VanBuren 
street  and  Fifth  avenue,  then  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city, 
and  was  shaded  by  native  oaks.  He  was  a  man  who  never 
seemed  so  happy  as  when  he  was  immersing  converted 
sinners  in  our  frozen  river  or  lake.  It  is  said  of  his  con- 
verts that  no  one  of  them  was  ever  known  to  be  a  back- 
slider. If  you  could  see  the  cakes  of  ice  that  were  raked 
out  to  make  room  for  baptismal  purposes,  you  would  make 
up  your  mind  that  no  man  would  join  a  church  under 
such  circumstances  unless  he  joined  to  stay.  Immersions 
were  no  uncommon  thing  in  those  days.  One  cold  day, 
about  the  first  part  of  February,  1839,  there  were  17  im- 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  43 

mersed  in  the  river  at  the  foot  of  State  street.  A  hole 
about  20  feet  square  was  cut  through  the  ice,  and  a  platform 
was  sunk,  with  one  end  resting  upon  the  shore.  Among 
the  17  was  our  well-known  architect,  John  M.  VanOsdell, 
alderman-elect,  said  to  be  now  the  only  survivor.  There 
are  many  now  living  who  were  baptized  by  Mr.  Hinton; 
among  them  is  the  wife  of  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  mayor- 
elect.  But  recently  our  Baptist  friends  have  made  up  their 
minds  that  our  lake  has  enough  to  do  to  carry  away  all 
the  sewerage  of  the  city,  without  washing  off  the  sins  of  the 
people.  It  is  also  claimed  for  Mr.  Hinton  that  no  couple 
he  married  was  ever  divorced.  He  was  just  as  careful  in 
marrying  as  he  was  in  baptizing ;  he  wanted  nobody  to  fall 
from  grace. 

It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  to  give  clergymen  dona- 
tion parties.  Now,  we  have  surprise  parties,  where  the 
lady  is  expected  to  endanger  her  health  by  hard-working 
all  day  in  order  to  prepare  her  house  for  a  surprise  in  the 
evening.  The  only  surprise  about  them  is  the  magnificence 
of  the  preparations.  Then  the  party  was  advertised  in  the 
newspapers,  and  a  notice  posted  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
church. 

It  was  customary  in  those  days  for  all  denominations  to 
patronize  liberally  the  clergymen  of  other  denominations. 

Mr.  Hinton  had  a  family  of  children  nearly  grown  up, 
and  consequently  all  the  young  people,  as  well  as  the  old, 
would  be  there  to  have  a  grand  frolic  at  his  donation  party. 
There  were  no  religious  services,  and  the  house  was  com- 
pletely taken  possession  of  by  the  multitude.  People 
would  send  just  what  they  happened  to  have,  and  it  would 
look  at  times  as  if  Parson  Hinton  was  going  into  the  storage 
business.  Cords  of  wood  would  be  piled  before  the  door ; 
flour,  salt,  pork,  beef,  box-raisins,  lemons,  oranges,  herring, 
dry-goods,  anything  and  everything.  After  the  donation 
party  was  over,  there  was  always  a  large  quantity  left  which 
he  did  not  need,  but  he  knew  exactly  where  to  place  it — 
among  the  destitute  of  the  city.  Probably  no  occasions 
are  remembered  with  more  pleasure  by  the  old  settlers  of 
this  city  than  those  gatherings  at  the  hospitable  mansion  of 
the  jolly  English  preacher,  with  his  attractive  laugh,  who 
always  enjoyed  a  good  story,  and  could  generally  tell  a 
better  one.  There  are  many  married  couples  in  this  city 
who  will  tell  you  that  there  was  where  they  first  met. 

The  first  Sabbath  I  passed  in  this  city,  my  good  board- 


.44  REMINISCENCES    OF    EARLY    CHICAGO. 

ing-house  mistress  (Mrs.  John  Murphy,  present  on  this 
platform  to-day)  took  me  with  her  to  his  church,  as  was  the 
custon  of  Christian  ladies  with  strange  young  men  in  those 
days.  He  told  me  that  godliness  was  profitable  unto  all 
things ;  and  he  was  right.  Christian  men  and  women 
have  not  kept  up  this  good  old  custom  of  taking  young 
men,  strangers  in  the  city,  to  church  with  them,  and  using 
their  efforts  to  lead  them  to  a  high  social  position  with 
their  religious  instruction.  Strange  young  men  now  in  this 
city  are  told  that  there  is  a  moral  infirmary  opened  here, 
entirely  for  their  benefit,  where  the  seats  are  all  free,  and 
men  are  supported  expressly  to  save  such  as  they  are  from 
destruction.  I  never  knew  a  young  man  to  amount  to  any- 
thing if  he  had  no  respect  for  his  social  position ;  and  that 
position  can  never  be  attained  where  young  men  are  turned 
away  for  religious  instruction,  to  places  to  visit  which  they 
would  not  think  of  inviting  a  young  lady  to  leave  a  respect- 
able church  to  accompany  them.  All  honor  to  those 
clergymen  and  Christians  of  Chicago  who  have  their  weekly 
church  sociables,  where  young  men  are  brought  forward 
into  respectable  social  intercourse,  as  well  as  moral  de- 
velopment. The  celebrated  Indian  chief,  Black  Hawk, 
covered  the  whole  ground  when  he  said  to  Gen.  Jackson, 
"  You  are  a  man,  and  I  am  another!" 

Not  feeling  able  to  sustain  the  expense  of  a  whole  pew, 
I  engaged  one  in  partnership  with  an  unpretending  saddle 
and  harness  maker  (S.  B.  Cobb),  who,  by  a  life  of  industry, 
economy,  and  morality,  has  accumulated  one  of  the  largest 
fortunes  in  our  city,  and  still  walks  our  streets  with  as  little 
pretense  as  when  he  mended  the  harnesses  of  the  fanners 
who  brought  the  grain  to  this  market  from  our  prairies.  The 
church  building  in  those  days  was  considered  a  first-class 
one,  and  we  had  a  first-class  pew  therein,  and  the  annual 
expense  of  my  half  of  the  pew  was  only  $12.50  more  than 
it  would  have  been  in  our  Saviour's  time.  People  wonder 
at  the  rapid  increase  in  the  price  of  real  estate  at  the  west ; 
but  it  bears  no  comparison  with  the  increase  in  the  price  of 
gospel  privileges.  A  good  clergyman  is  well  worth  all  that 
a  liberal-hearted  congregation  may  see  fit  to  pay  him.  But 
the  people  ought  to  cry  out  against  the  reckless  waste  of 
money,  steadily  increasing,  in  the  erection  of  extravagant 
church  edifices.  And  the  pride  in  such  matters  seems  to 
eat  up  all  other  considerations.  During  the  recent  panic, 
a  Christian  lady  of  this  city,  with  a  large  family  of  children, 


1!Y    HOX.  JOHN    WENTWORTH.  45 

whose  husband  was  suddenly  reduced  from  opulence  to 
penury,  astonished  me  by  observing,  with  tears  in  her  eyes, 
that  her  most  grievous  affliction  was  that  she  would  be 
compelled  to  give  up  her  pew  in  the  church,  which  was  one 
of  the  most'expensive  in  the  city,  and  take  one  in  a  cheaper 
edifice.  And  yet  our  people  sing  in  every  church,  "  God  is 
present  everywhere  !" 

At  the  close  of  service  one  dayk  Parson  Hinton  said  he 
thought  Chicago  people  ought  to  know  more  about  the 
devil  than  they  did.  Therefore  he  would  take  up  his  his- 
tory, in  four  lectures ;  first,  he  would  give  the  origin  of  the 
devil ;  second,  state  what  the  devil  has  done ;  third,  state 
what  the  devil  is  now  doing ;  and  fourth,  prescribe  how- 
to  destroy  the  devil.  These  lectures  were  the  sensation 
for  the  next  four  weeks.  The  house  could  not  contain  the 
mass  that  flocked  to  hear  him,  and  it  is  a  wonder  to  me 
that  those  four  lectures  have  not  been  preserved.  Chicago 
newspaper  enterprise  had  not  then  reached  here.  The 
third  evening  was  one  never  to  be  forgotten  in  this  city ;  as 
it  would  not  be  if  one  of  our  most  eminent  clergymen,  with 
the  effective  manner  of  preaching  that  Mr.  Hinton  had, 
should  undertake  to  tell  us  what  the  devil  is  doing  in  this 
city  to-day.  The  dritt  of  his  discourse  was  to  prove  that 
everybody  had  a  devil ;  that  the  devil  was  in  every  store, 
and  in  every  bank,  and  he  did  not  even  except  the  church. 
He  had  the  devil  down  outside  and  up  the  middle  of  every' 
dance  ;  in  the  ladies'  curls,  and  the  gentlemen's  whiskers. 
In  fact,  before  he  finished,  he  proved  conclusively  that  there 
were  just  as  many  devils  in  every  pew  as  there  were  per- 
sons in  it ;  and  if  it  were  in  this  our  day,  there  would  not 
have  been  swine  enough  in  the  Stock-Yards  to  cast  them 
into.  When  the  people  came  out  of  chnrch,  they  would 
ask  each  other,  "What  is  your  devil?"  And  they  would 
stop  one  another  in  the  streets  during  the  week,  and  ask, 
"What  does  Parson  Hinton  say  your  devil  is?"  The 
fourth  lecture  contained  his  prescription  for  destroying  the 
devil.  I  remember  his  closing :  "  Pray  on,  brethren  and 
fri  'nds  ;  pray  ever.  Fight  as  well  as  pray.  Pray  and  fight 
until  the  devil  is  dead  ! 

The  world,  the  flesh,  the  devil, 

Will  prove  a  fatal  snare, 
Unless  we  do  resist  him, 

By  faith  and  humble  prayer."' 

In  this  grand  cohtest  with  his  Satanic  Majesty,  he,  our 


46  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

leader,  fought  gloriously,  but  he  fell  early  in  the  strife.  We. 
his  hearers,  have  kept  up  a  gallant  fight  to  this  day,  but, 
judging  by  our  morning  papers,  the  devil  is  still  far  from 
being  dead.  Yet  we  dealt  him  some  heavy  blows  at  the 
recent  election ! 

An  interesting  institution  was  the  ferry-boat  between  the 
North  and  South  Sides.  It  was  a  general  intelligence  office. 
Business  was  done  principally  upon  the  South  Side,  while 
most  of  the  dwelling-houses  were  upon  the  North  Side. 
The  ferryman  knew  about  every  person  in  town,  and  could 
answer  any  question  as  to  who  had  crossed.  The  streets 
had  not  then  been  raised  to  their  present  grade,  nor  the 
river  deepened  or  widened,  and  the  boat  was  easily  acces- 
sible to  teams.  It  was  pulled  across  by  a  rope,  and  was 
not  used  enough  to  kill  the  green  rushes  which  grew  in 
the  river.  If  a  lady 'came  upon  the  South  Side  to  pass 
an  evening,  she  would  leave  word  with  the  ferryman  where 
her  husband  could  find  her.  Bundles  and  letters  were  left 
with  him  to  be  delivered  to  persons  as  they  passed.  He 
was  a  sort  of  superannuated  sailor,  and  if  he  had  not  sailed 
into  every  port  in  the  world,  he  had  a  remarkable  faculty 
of  making  people  think  he  had.  His  fund  of  stories  was 
inexhaustible,  and  he  was  constantly  spinning  his  interesting 
yarns  to  those  who  patronized  his  institution.  Like  most 
sailors,  he  could  not  pull,  unless  he  sung,  and  to  all  his 
songs  he  had  one  refrain  with  a  single  variation.  His  voice 
was  loud  and  sonorous.  If  he  felt  dispirited,  his  refrain 
was,  "And  I  sigh  as  I  pull  on  my  boat."  If  he  felt  jolly 
(and  people  took  particular  pains  to  make  him  so),  his 
refrain  was,  "And  I  sing  as  I  pull  on  my  boat."  All  night 
long  this  refrain  was  disturbing  the  ears  of  those  who  dwelt 
near  the  banks  of  the  river.  Song  after  song  was  com- 
posed for  him,  in  the  hope  of  changing  his  tune,  but  it 
would  not  be  long  before  he  would  attach  to  it  his  usual 
refrain.  One  of  our  musical  composers  composed  a  qua- 
drille, which  our  young  folks  used  to  dance  in  the  evening 
on  the  ferry,  during  certain  portions  of  which  they  would 
all  join  in  old  Jack's  refrain,  and  sing,  "And  we'll  dance 
as  we  ride  on  the  boat."  There  was  a  little  boy  who  took 
great  delight  in  Jack's  company,  whose  parents  lived  on 
the  margin  of  the  river  near  the  ferry,  and  as  in  the  last 
of  his  sickness  he  was  burning  with  a  violent  fever,  nothing 
would  quiet  him  but  the  sound  of  old  Jack's  voice.  Old 
Jack  had  just  sung,  "And  I  sigh  as  I  pull  on  my  boat," 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  47 

when  the  boy  whispered  his  last  words  to  his  mother,  "And 
I  die  while  Jack  pulls  on  his  boat!"  Jack  heard  of  this, 
and  his  lungs  became  stronger  than  ever.  Racking  both 
his  memory  and  his  imagination  for  songs,  for  weeks  all 
night  long  he  sung,  with  his  plaintive  refrain,  "Charlie  dies 
while  Jack  pulls  on  his  boat."  A  distinguished  poetess 
traveling  at  the  west  about  this  time,  was  tarrying  at  the 
Lake  House,  and  heard  of  the  incident.  She  wrote  for  a 
New  York  magazine  some  beautiful  lines  appropriate  to 
the  last  words  of  the  child  and  the  circumstances.  These 
were  reproduced  in  our  Chicago  papers,  but  I  have  in  vain 
sought  to  find  them.  Some  of  our  old  scrap-books  un- 
doubtedly contain  them,  and  I  would  like  to  be  the  instru- 
ment of  their  republication. 

Old  Jack  went  to  church  one  Sunday,  and  the  clergyman 
preached  from  the  text,  "Whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of 
Me  and  My  words,  of  him  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  ashamed 
when  He  shall  come  in  His  own  glory."  After  church  was 
over,  the  clergyman  took  Jack  to  task  for  making  so  much 
noise  on  his  ferry-boat,  and  told  him  he  was  going  to  have 
him  removed.  "You  can't  do  it,"  said  Jack.  "Why  not?'' 
said  the  clergyman.  "Your  sermon,  sir,  your  sermon!  You 
said  we  must  make  a  practical  application  of  it."  "How 
can  you  apply  that  to  your  position?"  "In  this  way,"  said 
Jack;  "the  Mayor  appoints  a  ferryman.  I  will  just  tell 
him,  he  that  is  ashamed  of  me  and  of  my  boat,  of  him  will 
I  be  ashamed  when  I  go  to  .the  polls  on  the  day  of  elec- 
tion!" Jack  was  not  removed.  But  he  went  one  fall  to 
the  south  with  the  robins;  but,  unlike  the  robins,  he  returned 
no  more.  He  probably  saw  the  coming  bridge. 

It  was  customary  during  the  winter  to  give  a  series  of 
dancing-parties  at  central  points  between  here  and  the  Fox 
River,  along  the  line  of  some  of  our  main  traveled  roads, 
notices  of  which  were  generally  given  in  the  newspapers. 
We  used  to  have  much  more  snow  than  we  have  now,  and 
large  sleigh-loads  of  people  would  be  fitted  out  from  the 
city,  to  meet  young  people  from  different  parts  of  the 
country.  People  in  the  country  settlements  were  generally 
emigrants  from  the  more  cultivated  portions  of  the  east. 
United  States  Senator  Silas  Wright  once  told  me  that  he 
could  enumerate  a  hundred  families,  the  very  flower  of  the 
agricultural  interest  of  St.  Lawrence  County,  who  had  emi- 
grated to  west  of  Chicago.  These  settlers  were  not  always 
poor;  they  were  often  men  of  large  families  who  came  here 


48  REMINISCENCES   OF    EARLY   CHICAGO. 

to  obtain  a  large  quantity  of  contiguous  land,  so  as  to  settle 
their  children  around  them.  The  custom  at  these  parties 
was  to  leave  Chicago  about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
take  supper  on  the  way  out.  and  engage  breakfast  for  the 
morning;  and,  after  dancing  all  night,  getting  back  to  the 
city  about  9  or  10  o'clock.  The  hotels  in  the  country  were 
frequently  built  of  logs,  but  whether  of  logs  or  boards,  were 
generally  built  in  one  style.  Cooking-rooms,  bar-room,, 
sitting-rooms,  were  below,  and  above  was  one  large  hall, 
which  could  be  used  for  religious  services  on  Sunday,  or 
public  meetings  on  a  weekday,  and,  by  suspending  blankets, 
could  be  divided  into  sleeping-rooms.  Above  was  the  attic, 
which  could  be  used  for  storage  when  the  hall  was  cleared, 
and  also  for  dressing-rooms  at  parties.  Ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen could  more  easily  find  their  wearing  apparel  when 
suspended  from  nails  driven  into  the  beams  of  the  building 
than  they  can  now  from  the  small  dressing-rooms  where 
the  clothing  is  in  constant  danger  of  being  mixed  together. 
I  remember  one  of  those  occasions  when  the  country  resi- 
dents had  begun  the  dance  before  those  from  the  city  had 
reached  there.  Country  ladies  were  passing  up  and  down 
the  ladder  to  the  dressing-room.  But  the  city  ladies  would 
not  ascend  the  ladder  until  it  had  been  fenced  around  with 
blankets.  There  were  always  on  these  occasions  mothers- 
present  from  the  country,  who  attended  the  young  people 
to  look  after  the  care  of  their  health,  such  as  seeing  that 
they  were  properly  covered,  on  their  going  home  from  a 
warm  room,  as  physicians  were  very  scarce  in  the  country, 
and  it  was  a  great  distance  for  many  of  them  to  send  for 
medicines.  These  country  matrons  took  it  much  to  heart- 
that  the  young  ladies  from  the  city  were  so  particular  in 
having  the  ladder  fenced  off,  and  were  very  free  in  the 
expression  of  their  views  on  the  subject  to  the  elderly 
gentlemen  present.  During  the  evening  a  sleigh-load  was 
driven  up  containing  a  French  danseuse  from  Chicago,  of 
considerable  note  in  those  days;  and  it  was  not  long  after 
she  entered  the  hall  before  the  floor  was  cleared  for  her  to 
have  an  opportunity  to  show  her  agility  as  a  fancy  dancer. 
When  she  began  to  swing  around  upon  one  foot,  with  the 
other  extended,  one  of  these  country  matrons,  with  a  great 
deal  of  indignation,  ran  across  the  hall  to  her  son,  and  said, 
"I  don't  think  it  is  proper  for  our  young  folks  to  see  any 
such  performance  as  this,  and  now  you  go  right  down  and 
tell  the  landlord  that  we  want  some  more  blankets,"  and  the 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  49 

boy  started  before  the  last  part  of  the  sentence  was  heard, 
"and  I'll  have  her  fenced  off  by  herself,  as  the  city  ladies 
did  the  ladder!"  Her  remarks  were  passed  from  one  to 
another,  and  the  company  was  loudly  applauding  them, 
when  the  applause  was  greatly  increased  by  the  entrance 
of  the  landlord  with  some  blankets  under  his  arm.  The 
more  the  applause  increased,  the  more  animated  became 
the  danseuse,  who  took  it  all  for  herself.  The  fancy  dance 
was  finished,  but  the  merriment  had  such  an  effect  that  one 
of  our  city  young  men  took  down  the  blankets  around  the 
ladder,  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  evening  the  exposed 
ladder  and  the  nimble  French  danseuse  ceased  to  attract 
attention. 

I  have  thus  made  you  a  few  selections  from  my  large 
casket  of  reminiscences  of  the  amusements  of  early  Chicago. 
But  I  give  them  as  a  mere  appendix  to  my  historical  lec- 
ture, and  do  not  wish  them  considered  as  any  part  of  it, 
as  I  could  have  ended  without  them,  and  then  have  given 
you  a  lecture  of  ordinary  length.  If  anyone  thinks  them 
inappropriate  to  this  occasion,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  respect- 
fully concur  in  his  views.  If,  however,  they  have  served 
to  compensate  any  of  you  for  the  tedium  of  the  more 
historical  portion  of  it,  I  will  waive  the  question  of  their 
appropriateness,  and  express  my  gratification  at  having 
given  them. 


SUPPLEIEITAL  IOTES. 


After  MR.  WENTWORTH'S   Lecture  had  been  published 
in  the  newspapers,  he  received  the  following  information : 
FROM  FULTON  COUNT\. 

The  County  Commissioners'  Court  met,  for  the  first  time,  3  June, 
1823.  July  5,  1823,  John  Kinzie  was  recommended  for  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  at  Chicago.  Sept.  2,  1823,  Ordered  that  an  election  be  held 
at  John  Kinzie's  house,  for  one  major  and  company  officers  in  lyth 
Regiment  of  Illinois  Militia;  John  Kinzie,  Alexander  Wolcott,  and 
John  Hamlin  to  conduct  said  election,  upon  the  last  Saturday  in  Sep- 
tember instant.  (ftaswQ  (F7* 

June  3,  1823,  Ordered  by  the  Court,  that  Amherst  C.  R**M*UM  be 
recommended  to  fill  the  office  of  Justice  of  the  Peace,  vice  Samuel 
Fulton,  resigned.  He  qualified  before  the  Clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court 
of  Fulton  Co.,  July  2,  1823. 

If  he  resided  at  Chicago,  he  robs  John  Kinzie  of  the  honor  of  being 
our  first  Justice  of  the  Peace.  u\. 

July  5,  1823,  Ordered  that  the  Treasurer  pay  to  A.  C.  I*mm.irr 
the  sum  of  four  dollars,  for  taking  a  list  of  the  taxable  property  at 
Chicago,  in  said  County,  and  collecting  the  same,  so  soon  as  he  (the. 
-tfiimam )  shall  pay  the  same  over  to  the  County  Treasurer,  in 
such  money  as  he  received.  (X^/ILO-^^^- 

Sept.  3,  1823,  Ordered  that  Amherst  C.  Rmumar  [•Iluu'.ium?]  hand 
over  to  County  Treasurer  amount  of  tax  received  and  collected  at 
Chicago,  in  same  kind  of  money  he  received. 

April  27,  1824,  Sheriff  Eads  released  from  paying  money-tax  col- 
lected at  Chicago  by  Bnnrrmir  [Rmionm-*]  C^UH^XOvw^ 

It  is  so  hard  to  decypher  these  French  names  in  American  manu- 
scripts that  this  name  may  not  be  the  correct  one.  There  was  a 
Eustache  Roussain  and  also  a  Captain  Ransom  in  the  employ  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  in  this  region,  in  1821. 

It  may  be  that  he  was  not  a  defaulter,  but  collected  his  taxes  in 
furs,  local  money,  etc. ,  and  refused  to  give  them  up  until  he  received 
his  four  dollars  in  tash.  • 

Jf 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  5 1 

The  same  name  appears  as  grand  juror,  October,  1823. 

Among  the  grand  jurors,  in  October,  1823  and  April,  1824,  were 
Elijah  Wentworth,  Sr.  In  Sept.,  1824,  Hiram,  son  of  Elijah  Went- 
worth, Sr.,  was  added.  In  March  and  Sept.,  1824,  Elijah  Wentworth, 
Jr.  (our  first  Coroner),  and  John  Holcomb  (who  married  his  sister), 
were  upon  the  petit  jury.  The  Wentworths  were  then  living  in  what 
is  now  Fulton  Co.  Whence  they  removed  to  Dodgeville,  Wisconsin,  -  ^ 
and  did  not  come  to  Chicago  until  1830. 


CHICAGO  MARRIAGES  RECORDED  IN  FULTON  CO. 

By   John    Hamlin,   J.P.,   July  20,    1823,    Alexander  Wolcott  and 
Ellen  M.  Kinzie. 

By  same,  October  3rd,  1823,  John  Ferrel  and  Ann  Griffin. 

[The  Clerk  sends  this  as  a  Chicago  marriage;  but  I  can  learn  noth- 
ing of  the  parties.] 

It  is  claimed  that  the  marriage  of  Dr.  Wolcott,  Indian  agent  here, 
in  1823,  was  the  first  in  Chicago.     He  died  in  1830,  voting  on  the  24th 
July,   of  that  year.      His  widow,  daughter  of  John   Kinzie,   married 
George  C.  Bates^ow^Setroit,  Mich.     He  is  now  living  in  Salt  Lake          I 
City.      Col.  Ti^ma^.Owens  was  aftetlfrards  JijflLRll  Ugent,  and  may  jf/rt 

t-^  ^\  C/g       ^r~9*AjK.   i->*  ^       li 

have  succeeded  him.     Charles  Jewett,0f  Kentucjjy7~was  Dr.  Wolcott's      // 
predecessor,  and  our  first  Indian  ag«ir.  HfL-fL-  fhjiAfvCLTnf*-^  {tfft^t_t*&''tf 

John  Hamlin  died  at  Peoria,  in  April  of  this  year.     A  writer  in  the  ,^-^^j^, .  jl 
Peoria    Transcript   says,   that  in   1823,   he  accompanied   William  S.^L      A  • 
Hamilton  to  Green   Bay,   where  he  had  a  contract  to  supply  Fort        <J        » 
Howard  with  beef,  and  he  arrived  there  July  2d,  1823.     On  his  way        -*» 
back,   Mr.  Hamlin  performed  the  marriage  ceremony.     Whilst  here,  7\^|-^ '/( 
he  made  an  engagement  with  John  Crafts  to  enter  the  service  of  the     ^ 
American  Fur  Company,  which  frequently  brought  him  to  Chicago. 


*^**- 

<r 


NOTES  UPON  THE  TAX  PAYERS  OF  1825. 


1.  Gen.  John   B.   Beaubien  was  living  at  Macinac  when  the  Fort 
tliere  was  surrendered  to  the  British,  in  1812.     He  married  a  sister 
of  the  Indian*  Chief,  Joseph  Laframboise,  was  brought  here  in  1819, 
by  the  American  Fur  Company  to  oppose  Mr.   Crafts,   had  several 
children  (some  of  whom  now  live  here),  was  one  of  the  principal  men 
in  the  employ  of  the  American  Fur  Co.,  and  his  last  wife  with  several 
of  his  children  was  upon  the  platform  at  the  delivery  of  this  lecture. 
I  attended  the  marriage  of  his  daughter,   in  early  days,   to  N.    D. 
Woodville. 

2.  Jonas  Clybourne  came  from  Pearisburgh,  Gil^Co.,  Virginia,  with 

"> 


52 


SUPPLEMENTAL. 


sons  Archibald  and  Henley.  Archibald  came  in  1823  and  went  back 
to  Virginia  for  his  father's  family.  His  widow,  who  was  a  Miss  Gallo- 
way, from  the  region  now  known  as  Marseilles,  LaSalle  Co  ,  Illinois 
was  on  the  platform  at  the  delivery  of  this  lecture,  and  has  several  chil- 
dren. Henley  Clybourne  married  Sarah  Benedict,  and  has  two  sons 
living  at  Fort  Scott,  Kansas.  Archiba'd  Clybourne  was  Justice  of  the 
Peace  in  1831.  njLi_ 

^  Clark,  was  half  brother  to  Archibald/Clybourne,  and 

mamed  Permelia,  daughter  of  Stephen  J.  Scott,  wio  now  lives  his 
widow,  at  Deerfield,  Lake  Co.,  111.,  with  her  daughter.  There  WM 
no  son  to  live  to  have  children. 

4.  John  Crafts  was  a  trader  sent  here  by  Mr.  Conant,  of  Detroit,  and 
had  a  trading  house  at  Hardscrabble,  near  Bridgeport,  and  monopo- 
lized the  trade  until  the  American  Fur  Company  sent  John  B.  Beaubien 
here  in  1819.  In  1822,  Mr.  Crafts  went  into  the  employment  of  the 
Fur  Company  as  superintendant,  Mr.  Beaubien  being  under  him.  He 
died  here  single  in  1823,  at  Mr.  Kinzie's  house,  and  he  succeeded  him. 
Prior  to  this,  Mr.  Kinzie  was  a  silver-smith  and  made  trinkets  for  the 
Indians. 

5-  Jeremie  Claremont  was  employed  by  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany in  1821,  for  the  trade  of  the  Iroquois  River  .r 

8  &  9.   Claude  and  Joseph  Laframboise  were  bfttW-rs.     The  widow 
the  latter  was  living,  M'fcst  dates,  with  her  son-in-law,  Medard  B. 
Beaubien,  at  Silver  Lake,  ShawnVe  Co.,  Kansas. 

II.   Peter  Piche,   is  believed  to  have  been  the  one  who  lived  at 
Piche's  Grove,  near  Oswego,  Illinois,  alluded  to  by  Mrs.  Kinzie  in  her 
rt^'  Waubun.  " 

14-  Antoine  Oilmette  is  the  person  spoken  of  in  Mrs.  Kinzie's  book, 
"Waubun."     His  daughter  Elizabeth,  married  Jan.  23,  1827,  our  first 
^.Jrishman,  Michael  Welch. 


,_      .  -  ,  .   -•    YOTERS.XJFAIS26.  .  ^ 

i.    Augustine  Bafmy,  said,  tp.haye  been, a  travelling-  cattle  "dealer, 
supplying  Forts. 

2.  Henry  Kelly,  had  no  family  here,  worked  for  Samuel  Miller. 
4.  Cole  Weeks,  American,  was  a  discharged  soldier,  had  nofamiy 
worked  for  John  Kinzie.  He  married  the  divorced  wife  oi^L^J^ 
Caldwell,  brother  of  the  first  wife  of  Willis  Scott.  Caldwell  had  a 
fondness  for  Indian  hunting  and  trading,  and  is  supposed  to  have  gone 
off  and  died  with  them.  A  man,  answering  his  description,  by  the 
name  of  Caldwell,  was  living,  not  loyg  since,  at  Kershena,  Shawanaw 
Co.,  Wisconsin.  Cald well's  wife,  who  married  Cole  Weeks,  was  sister 
ito  Benjamin  Hall,  of  Wheaton,  DuPage  Co.,  111.,  and  Caldwell  was 
cousin  to  Archibald  Clybourne,  and  came  from  the  same  place  in  Vir- 
ginia 


53 

14-   Francis  Laducier,  had  no  famil/^ied  at  Archibald  Clybourne's. 
21.  Joseph    Pothier,   married    Victor^VIiranda,   a  half  breed,  was 
ought  up  in  John  Kinzie's  family,  was  living  recently  at  Milwaukee. 
2^K)avid  McKee,lkves  at  Aurora,  Kane  Co.;  111.,. and  married  23 
January,  1827,  Wealthy,  daughter  of  Stephen  J.  Scott.     He  was  borr^y     J 
on  Hog  Creek,  Pewtown,  Loudoun  Co.,  Virginia,  in  1800.  £iA£t>  fvt*'  r\*n- 
^25.  Joseph  Anderson,  had  no  family.  (^•^/fc't- 

.31.  Martin  VanSicle,  was  Jiving  recently  near  Aurora,  111.  He  had 
a  daughter,  Almira.\  Willisr  Scott  remembers-  -going  to-jPeoria  for  a 
marriage  license  for  her.  * 

34.   Edward  Ament,  was  living  recently  not  far  from  Chicago-  some     ,     * // 
say  in  Kankakee  Co;,  111.    ^v^-*-6  A-C  cJrf^J~(t/^7^  A£  £^«_*/lL^V  ^*  ' 

The  most  of  those  having  French  names  were  employes  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  or  hunted  and  traded  on  the'ir  own  respon- 
sibility ;  and,  when  Chicago  was  abandoned  as  a  Fur  Trading  Post, 
they  moved  further  into  the  frontier  country,  in  pursuit  of  their 
business. 


NOTES  UPON  THE  VOTERS  OF  1830. 

I.  Stephen  J.  Scott  was  born  in  Connecticut,  moved  to  Chicago 
from  Bennington,  Wyoming  Co.,  N.Y.,  lived  many  years  at  Naper- 
.'ille,  111.,  and  died- there,  where  his  son  Williard  now  lives.  His  son 
Willis  now  lives  in  Chicago,  and  was  upon  the  platform  when  this 
lecture  was  delivered.  Several  of  his  daughters  are  mentioned  in  these 
notes. 

4.  Barney  H.  Laughton,  lived  in  hi?  last  days  near  what  is  now  "^  k    ! 
Riverside,  on  the  O'Plaine  River,  and  his  wife  was  sister  to  the  wife  of 

onr  first  Sheriff,  Stephen  Forbes. 

5.  Jesse  Walker,  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  finally  settled  at  Wai-  > 
ker's  Grove,  now  Plainfield,  in  this  State.                                                               •'' 

8.   James  Kinzie,  was  natural  son  of  John  Kinzie.     His  mother  and  I  '£'  "j 

Archibald  Ctyb£urne's  mother  were  sisters.     His  first  wife  was  Rev.  ^  •    V*   * 

William  See's  daughter.     He  died  at  Racine,  Wis.,  where  his  second  ,     '  \    *J 

'•MtoMPrttting.     His  own  sister  Elizabeth  Kinzie  married  ^ 

Her^tlM^iotel  keeper. 
9-    Russell  E.   Heacock,  died  at  Summit,  Cook  Co.,   111.,  in  1849, 
and  he  has  sons  in  this  vicinity. 

12.  John  L.  Davis,  said  to  have  been  an  Englishman,  and  a  tailor.  i^K  w    f 

17-    Stephen  Mack,  son  of  Major  Mack  of  Detroit,  married  an  Ind-  ^     *    »     \ 

ian,   was  cllrk  in  the  employ  of  the  American  Fur  Company,   and  f   , 

^^^.Ifinallysettled   in  Pickatonica,  Winnebago  Co.,  in  this  State.  7  ^A 

/>W^'  ifl.-'jonathan^  Bailey,  was  father-in-law  to  the  Post  Master,  John  '  '   f.+Str 

S.   C.  Hogan1^Mjv--Hogan  held  the  office  until  1837,   when  Sidney 
Abell^rrSppljinted,     Mr.  Hogan  died  in  M^nphis,  Tenn.,y 


54 


SUPPLEMENTAL. 


i 


!4 


ff* 

*  ^ 

fj 
< 

5 


> 

^ 
$^ 


Mr.  Bailey  was  Po4u»ksj£i/lgfbre  Hogan. 

~~^  Alexander   M^    i"-ji'r''"on.,  nliin   annm 
ft  ^ f 


— rrTtTla 


ri 


27  &  28.   John  Baptiste  Secor  and  Joseph  Bauskey,  died  of  cholera 
in  1832.  •«  Bauskey  married  a  daughter  of  Stephen  J.  Scott. 

32.    Peresh  LeClerc,  wasan  Indian  interpreter,  brought  up  by 
Kinzie.        I. 
O**-^/* 


/ 


SPECIAL  FLECTION 


For  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  Constable,  at  the  house  of  James  Kinzie, 

in   the   Chicago   Precinct  of   Peoria  County,    State  of  Illinois,    on 

Saturday,  24th  day  of  July,  1830. 

Total,  John  S.  C.  Hogan,  for  Justice  of  the  Peace,  33  votes,  Archi- 
bald Clybourne,  22  votes,  Russell  Hose,  I  vote.  Total,  56. 

For  Constable,  Horatio  G.  Smith,  32  votes,  Russell  Rose,  21  votes, 
John  S.  C.  Hogan,  I  vote.  Total,  54- 


1  James  Kinzie.  29 

2  Jean  Baptiste  Beaubien  1825,  '26  30 

3  Alexander  Wolcott.          1825      31 

4  Augustin  Bannot.  [Banny?]  1826  32 

5  Me*dard  B.    Beaubien. 

6  Billy  Caldwell.  1826 

7  Joseph  Laframboise.  1825,  1826  35 
v€  John   Mann. 

*9  John  Wellmaker. 

10  Stephen  J.   Scott. 

11  Thomas  Ayers. 

12  Russell  Rose. 

13  Lewis  Ganday  or  Louis  Gauday. 

14  Michael  Welch. 

15  William  P.  Jewett. 

16  John  VanHorn. 

17  Gabriel  *Acay. 

1 8  Joseph  Papan. 

19  Williard  Scott. 

20  Peter  Wycoff. 

21  Stephen  Mack.  ,  . 

22  James  Galloway,  [father  of/Mrs. 

Archibald  Clybourne.] 

23  David  VanStow.  [VanE/ton?] 

24  James  Brown. 

25  Samuel  Littleton 

26  Jean  Baptiste  Laduci 

27  Joseph  Thibeaut. 

Blov 


Jean  Baptis*  Secor.  1826 

Mark   Beaubien. 

Peresh  Laclerc. 

Matthias  Smith. 

James   Garo\v. 

Alexander  Robinson.  1825,  1826 

Samuel  Miller.  [Landlord."] 

Jonas  Clybourne.        1825,  1826 

John  Joyal. 

Peter  Frique. 

Jean  Bapt.  Tombien.  [Toubien?] 

John  L.   Davis. 


George  P,  \YeiHworth. 

Alex. 


Jonathan   ^^  Bailey,  t 

David  M'Kee** 

Joseph  Pothier.  1826 

Henry  Kelly.  1826 

Antoine  Ouilmette.    1825,  1826 

David  Hunter.  [General.] 

James  Engle.-*^. _J7f"" 

John  K.   Clark.          1825,  1826 

Russell  E.    Heacock.  * 

1826 

Horatio  G. 


\v\ 


SUPPLEMENTAL. 


55 


John  S.  C.  Hogan,  the  successful  candidate  for  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
did  not  vote.  Archibald  Clybourne  voted  (for  Justice)  for  Russell 
Rose,  who  was  the  candidate  for  Constable,  'J&'tea  iaT~  John  S.  C. 
Hogan,  for  the  office  of  Constable.  ' 

But  the  two  candidates  for  Constable  came  squarely  up  to  the  mark, 
and  voted  for  each  other. 

Mr.  Hogan  was  Postmaster  in  Chicago  prior  to  the  election  of 
Martin  VanBuren  as  President,  who  appointed  Sidney  Abell  to  suc- 
ceed him.  He  built  the  first  frame  house  on  the  South  Side.  It  was 
near  the  north-west  corner  of  Lake  and  Franklin  streets. 

The  judges  of  this  election  were  Alexander  Wolcott,  John  B.  Beau- 
bien,  and  James  Kinzie.  The  clerks  were  Medard  B.  Beaubien  and 
Billy  Caldwell,  the  Sauganash. 

19  Williard  Scott  was  a  son  of  Stephen  J.  Scott;  and  now  lives  at 
Naperville,  111.  .  . 

42  There  was  a  Lieut.i^-^'Foster  here  about  that  time. 

50  General  Hunter,  U.  S.  Army,  married  Maria  H.  Kinzie,  born 
1807,  the  only  child  of  John  Kinzie,  now  living. 

There  was  a  Lieut.?  -  Engle  stationed  here  about  that  time. 

' 


SPECIAL  ELECTION 

For  Justice  of  the  Peace,  at  the  house  of  James  Kinzie,  Chicago  Pre- 
cinct, Peoria  County,  State  of  Illinois,  on  Thursday,  the  25th  day  of 
November,  1830. 

1  Archibald  Clybourne. 

2  James  Kinzie. 


3  John  Wellmaker. 

4  iajuxMann. 

5  Russell  E.   Heacock. 

6  Peter  Wycoff. 

7  Billy  Caldwell. 

8  Jesse  Walker. 

9  Enoch  Thompson. 

10  Medard  B.   Beaubien. 

11  David  VanEaton. 

12  John  B.   Beaubien. 

13  Stephen  J.   Scott. 
Total,  Stephen  Forbes,  18. 


14  Matthias  Smith. 

15  David  McKee. 

1 6  William 

17  Horace 

1 8  Samue. 

Forbes. 
William  See. 
Peter  Muller. 

22  Jonas  Clybourne. 

23  John  B.    Bradain. 

24  John  Shedakpr.r,4 

25  Peter  Frique. 

26  John  K.   Clark. 
William  See,  8. 


in  Mrs. 


Mr.  Forbes  was  the  first  Sheriff  of  Cook  Co.,  and  marrie 
the  wife  of  Barney  H.  Laughton.     William  See  is  mentione 
Kinzie's  "Waubun,"  and  was  a  Methodist  preacher. 

Mr.  &  Mrs.  Forbes  taught  school  here  in  1831..^. 

In  this  contest,  each  candidate  voted  for  his  opponent. 

The  judges  at  this  election  were  James  Kinzie,  John  B.  Beaubien, 
and  Archibald  Clybourne.  The  clerks  were  Russell  E.  Heacock  and 
Stephen  J.  Scott. 

6  Peter  Wycoff,  was  a  discharged  soldier,  and  worked  for  Archibald 
Clybourne.  •  ^<*w%*V< 

9  There  was  a  Li«u.  ---  Thompson  stationed  here  about  that  time, 


/  ^  / 
ugSi 


*  v>  .-. 


OK 


56  SUPPLEMENTAL. 

CHICAGO  MARRIAGES,   RECORDED  IN  PEORIA  CO. 
By  John  Kinzie,     24  April,  1826.     Daniel  Bourassea  and  Theotis 
Aruwaiskie. 

By  John  Kinzie.  29  July,  1826.  Samuel  Miller  and  Elizabeth  Kin- 
zie.  [Mr.  Miller  kept  a  hotel  on  the  North  Side,  near  the  forks,  and 
near  where  Kinzie  street  crosses  the  River.  He  moved  to  Michigan 
City,  and  died  there.  His  wife  was  full  sister  to  James  Kinzie,  and 
natural  daughter  of  John  Kinzie.  Her  mother  was  sister  to  Archibald 
Clybourne's  mother.] 

By  John  Kinzie.  28  September,  1826.  Alexander  Robinson  and 
Catherine  Chevalier.  [Che-che-pin-gua  died  on  his  reservation  on  the 
O'Plaine  River,  in  this  county,  where  his  daughter  now  lives ;  his  wife 
•and  sons  being  dead.] 

By  John  B.  Beaubien.  5  May,  1828.  •  Joseph  Bauskey  and  Widow 
Deborah  (Scott)  Watkins.  [He  died  of  cholera  in  1832.  His  wife 
was  daughter  of  Stephen  J.  Scott.] 

By  John  B.  Beaubien.  15  April,  1830.  Samuel  Watkins  and  Mary 
Ann  Smith.  •" 

By  John  B.  Beaubien.  II  May,  1830.  Michael  Welch  and  Eliza- 
beth Ouilmette.  [He  was  our  first  Irishman,  and  his  wife  was  daughter 
of  Antoine  Ouilmette,  of  Ouilmette's  Reservation,  in  this  Co.  ] 

By  John  B.  Beaubien.     18  May,  1830.     Alvin  Noyes  Gardner  and 
-     [He  moved  to  Blue  Island.] 

William  See.     3  August,  1830.     John  Mann  and  Arkash 
lk'J»\jk»'"  l\b 

^i1H\m  See'     *  November'  l83°-     WiIIis  Scott  and  ^Mr 
sa ft  feffilwlll.     [They  have  been  heretofore  alluded  to.] 

>R£j^'am  SeC'     7  November>  l83°-     B.  H.  Laughton  and 
fc  Bates."  fThey  have  been  heretofore  alluded  to.] 


^O^T        GOV.   FORD'S  HOUSE. 

Jas.  V.  Gale,  an  old  settler  of  Oregon,  Ogle  Co.,  111.,  writes 
me:  "that  the*house  from  which  Thomas  Ford  was  elected  Governor 
,  p  v  .          Was  one  storied'  l6  or  l8  b7  38,  had  a  parlor,  dining-room,  arid  two 
-,/ V*bedrooms'  with  a  sma'l  cooking  room  attached.     It  has  been  taken 
.  down  some  years.      He-settled  here  as  early  as  1836.  and  made  a  claim 
fjCk&4*S  south  of  that  of  John  Phelps.     He  sold  it  to  John  Fridley,  who  now 

Lifffar,   °«WnS  lt;  and  the  Same  log  cabin'  which  JudSe  Ford  erected  and  occu- 
lUnd  Att8i»7Untl1  he.built  his  frame  house,  still  stands.     It  is  18  feet  square 
an^X      ogs  high.     He  was  a  man  of  small  stature,  careless  in  his  dress 
,  of  goo    talents,  put  on  no  airs,  popular  with  all,  a  good  neighbor,  able 

vdTifrtp  (f,  Lo  C^-c^i 


L^Ljt^. 

4f€)s^g*^ 


INDEX 

TO 

"EARLY  CHICAGO:"-  -Second  Lecture, 

(No.  7  of  Fergus'  Historical  Series.) 

BY 
HON.    JOHN    WENT  WORTH,    LL.  D., 

Delivered  Sunday,  May  7,  1876. 
[This  Index  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Wentworth,  August,  1881.] 


A. 

Abel,  Sidney,  53,  55- 
Acay,  Gabriel,  54. 
Adams,  John,  9.          S 
Adams,  John  Quh^yT  6,  7,  8,  17. 
Ament,  Edwardri6,  53. 
Anderson,  Joseph,  16,  53*. 
Aruwaiskie,  Theotis,  56. 
Aurora  (schooner),  24. 
Ayers,  Thomas,  54. 


Bailey,  Jonathan  M.,  16,  53,  54. 
Banny,  [Barry  or  Bannot;]  Augustine, 

16,  52,  54. 

Bates,  George  C.,  51. 
Bates,  Sophia,  56. 
Bauskey,  Joseph,  17,  54,  56. 
Beaubien,  John  B.,  15,  16,  18,  22,  24, 

51,  52,  54,  55.  56. 
Beaubien,  Mark,  17,  24,  25,  54. 
Beaubien,  Medore  B.  [Medard  B.], 

16,  18,  22,  33,  35,  S2,  54,  55- 
Benedict,  Sarah,  52. 
Benton,  Thomas  H.,  8. 
Black  Hawk  (Indian  chief),  4,  IO,  44- 
Blow,  Lewis,  54. 
Bogardus,  John  L.,  15- 
Bourassea,  Daniel,  16,  56. 
Bourassea,  Leon,  16,  54. 
Bradain  [Beaubien],  John  B.,  55. 
Breese,  Sidney,  12,  14. 
Brown,  James,  16,  54. 


Brown,  Jesse,  19. 
Brown,  Thomas  C.,  19. 
Brown,  William  H.,  n. 
Buchanan,  Tames.  8.     _^ 
Buell,  B-T'M-     ' 
Burr,  Aaron,  9. 

C. 

Caldwell,  Archibald,  52,  53. 
Caldwell,  Billy,   (Sauganash,    Indian 
chief),  14,  16,  17,  18,  25,  33,  54,  55- 
Calhoun,  John,  3. 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  7,  !?• 
Caldwell,  Lovisa  B.,  56. 
Cass,  Gen.  Lewis,  8,  22. 
Catie,  Joseph,  16. 
Chamblee  (Shabonee,   Indian  chief), 

.Charlevoix,  Pierre  Francois  Xavir  de, 

10—13. 

Chavellea,  John  Baptiste,  16. 
Chavellie,  Peter,  16. 
Che-che-pin-qua   (Alexander    Robin- 
son, Indian  chief),  15,  1 6,  33,  54,  56. 
Chevalier,  Catherine,  56. 
Chi-ka-gou  (Indian  chief),  12. 
Clairmore  [Clermont?],  Jeremiah,  16. 
Clark,  John  K.,   15,  16,  17,   18,  52, 

54.  55- 
day,  Henry,  7,  17 • 
Clermont  [Clairmore?],  Jeremiah,  15, 

16,  52. 
Clybourn,  Archibald,  16,  17,  18,  52,. 

53.  54,  55.  56. 


EARLY   CHICAGO. 


Clybourn,  Henly,  52. 

Clybourn,  Jonas,   15,   16,  17,  51,  54, 

Cobb,  Silas  B.,  44. 
Conant,  ,  52- 

Cook,  Daniel  P.,  17,  25. 
Contra,  Louis,  15. 
Crafts,  John,  15,  16,  51,  52. 
Crittenden,  John  J.,  8. 

D. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  7,  26.     ^ * 

Davis,  JoTin  L.,  16,  53,  54. 

Dearborn,  Gen.  Henry,  7. 

Debigie,  Simon,  54. 

Displattes,  Basile,  16. 

Dodge,  Gen.  Henry,  8. 

Dorr,  Capt.  of  Schooner  Tracy,  8. 


E. 

Eads,  Abner,  15,  50. 
Edwards,  Gai-.  Ninian,  17,  25. 
Engle,  Lt.  James,  54,  55. 

F. 

Fair  Play  (revenue  cutter),  24. 

Fergus,  Robert,  26. 

Ferrel,  John,  51. 

Field,  Darby,  19. 

Fillmore,  Millard,  7,  8. 

Forbes,  Stephen,  53,  55. 

Forbes,  Mrs.  Stephen,  55. 

Ford,   Gen:  Thomas,  38,  39,  40,  56. 

Foster,  Lt.  Amos,  54,  55. 

Fridley,  John,  56. 

Frique,  Peter,  16,  54,  55. 

Fulton,  Samuel,  50. 

G. 

•  Gage,  Gen.  Thomas,  n. 
Gale,  James  V.,  56. 
Galloway,  James,  54. 
Galloway,   Miss,   married  Archibald 

Clybourn,  52. 
Ganday,  Lewis,  17,  54. 
Gardner,  Alvin'Noyes,  56. 
Garie,  ,12. 

Garow,  James,  54. 
Garrett,  Augustus,  33. 
Griffin,  Ann,  51. 


H. 

Hale,  Artimas,  9. 
Haley,  Julia,  56. 
Hall,  Benjamin,  52. 
Hallam,  Rev.  Isaac  W.,  33. 
Hamilton,  Mrs.   Gen.   Alexander,  9. 
Hamilton,  William  S.,  51. 
Hamlin,  John,  50,  51. 
Harrison,  Gen.  William  H.,  8. 
Heacock,  Russell  E.,  16,  18,  53,  54, 

55- 

Heartless  (schooner),  24. 
Henry  Clay  (steamboat),  5. 
Hinton,  Rev.  Isaac  T.,  42,  43,  45. 
Hogan,  John  S.   C.,  16,  53,   54,  55. 
Holcomb,  John,  51. 
Hoyne,  Thomas,  43. 
Hubbard,  Gurdon  S.,  12. 
Hull,  Gen.  William,  25. 
Hunter,  Gen.  David,  54,  55. 

J- 

ijackson,  Gen.  Andrew,  8,  17,  28,  32, 

44-  I 

Jamboe,  Paul,  16.  """"^      ,  _^. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  9,  12. 
Jewett,  William  P.,  54. 
Jewett,  William,  55. 
Johnston,  Samuel,  16. 
Jowett  [or  Jewett],  Charles,  51. 
Joyal,  John,  54. 
Junio,  Peter,  16. 

K. 

Kearney,  Gen.  Stephen  W.,  19. 

Keating,  William  H.,  22. 

Kelley,  Henry,  16,  52,  54. 

Kennison,  David,  9. 

Kerchival,  Benjamin  B.,  22. 

Kimball,  Walter,  3. 

Kingsbury,  Julius  J.  B.,  42. 

Kinzie,  Elizabeth,  53,  56. 

Kinzie,  Ellen  M.,  51. 

Kinzie,  James,  16,  18,  26,  53,  54,  55, 

56. 
Kinzie,  John,  15,  16,  17,  18,  23,  50, 

5i.  52»  53,  54,  55,  56. 
Kinzie,  Mrs.  Juliette  A.,  52,  55. 
Kinzie,  Maria  H.,  55. 

L. 

Laducier,   Francis,  16,  17,  53. 


INDEX. 


59 


Laducier,  John  Baptiste,  54. 
Lafortune,  John  Baptiste,  16. 
Lafromboise,  Claude,  15,  16,  52. 
Lafromboise,  Francis,  sr. ,  16. 
Lafromboise,  Francis,  jr.,  16. 
Lafromboise,  Joseph,    15,  16,  17,  33, 

Si.  52,  54- 

Larant,  Alexander,  16. 
Laughton,  Barney  H.,  16,  53,  55,  56, 
LeClerc,  Peresh  (LeClair,  Peter),  17, 

54- 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  8. 
Littleton,  Samuel,  54. 
Long,  Stephen  H.,  22. 

M. 

Mack,  Major,  53. 

Mack,  Stephen,  16,  53,   54. 

Madison,  James,  8,  9. 

Madison,  Mrs.  James,  8,  9. 

Malast,  John  Baptiste,  16. 

Mann,  John,  16,  54,  55,  56. 

Martin,  Laurant,  17. 

Marquetta,  Rtr.  James,  13. 

Maximi^n^Tw/m?/-,  20. 

M-eCllfe,  Alexander,  16,  54. 

McKee,  David,   15,   16,  22,  23,  24, 

53,  54,  55- 
McNeil,  John,  24. 
Miller,  Samuel,  53,  54,  55,  56. 
Mills,  Benjamin,  26. 
Miner,  Horace,  55. 
Miranda,  Victoria,  53. 
Monroe,  James,  8. 
Muller,  Peter,  55. 
Murphy,  John,  25,  44. 

o! 

Orleans,  Duchess  of,  13. 

Ouilmette  (Willmette),  Antoine,    15, 

1 6,  52,  54,  56. 

Ouilmette,  Elizabeth,  52,  56. 
Owen,  Thomas  J.  V.,  51. 

P. 

Papan,  Joseph,  54. 
Pepot,  Joseph,  16. 
Perrot,  Nicholas,  13. 
Phelps,  John,  56. 
Piche,  Peter,  15,  52. 
Pierce,  Franklin,  8. 
Polk,  James  K. ,  7,  8,  20. 


Pothier,  Joseph,   16,  23,  33,  53,  54- 

R. 

Ransom,  Capt.,  50. 
Rausom,  Amherst  C.,  15,  50. 
Reynolds,  Gov.  John,  17. 
Robinson,   Alexander,  (Che-che-pin- 

qua,  Indian  chief),   15,   16,  33,  54, 

56. 

Rose,  Russell,  54,  55. 
Roussain,  Eustache,  50. 

50. 
Russell,  Benjamin,  16. 

S. 

Sambli,  Arkash,  56. 
Sauganash    (Billy    Caldwell,    Indian 
chief),  14,  1 6,  17,   1 8,  25,  33,   54, 

^Scott,  Deborah,  56. 
,  Permelia,  52. 
cott,  Stephen  T.,  16,  52,  53,  54,  55, 

56. 

Scott,  Wealthy,  .53. 
Scott,  Willard,  53,  54,  55. 
Scott,  Willis,  52,  53,  56. 
Schuyler,  Gen.  Philip,  9. 
Secor,  John  Baptist,  16,  17,  54. 
See,  Rev.  William,  16,  53,  55,  56. 
Shabonee(Chamblee,  Indian  chief), 33. 
Shedaker,  John,  55. 
Sheldon   Thompson  (steamboat),  5. 
Smith,  Horatio  G.,  54. 
Smith,  Joseph,  41. 
Smith,  Mary  Ann,  56. 
Smith,  Matthias,  54,  55. 
St.Clair,  Gen.  Arthur,  II. 
Strode,  James  M.,  26. 
Sullivan,  Jeremiah,  20. 

Sullivan,  Lt. ,  20,  21. 

Superior  (steamboat),  5. 
Swiug,  Rei>.  David,  37. 

T. 

Tappan,  Benjamin,  6. 

Taylor,  Augustine  D.,  3. 

Tayljr,  Zachary,  8. 

Tecumseh  (Indian  chief),  13,  14,  17. 

Thibeaut,  Joseph,  16,  54. 

Thompson,  Lt.  J.  L.,  55. 

Thompson,  Enoch,  55. 


6o 


EARLY   CHICAGO. 


Thompson,  Samuel,  II,  17. 

Titus,  Capt. —    — ,  24. 

Todd,  John,  u. 

Tombien  (or  Toubien),  Jean  Baptiste, 

54- 

Tracy  (schooner),  8. 
Tyler,  John,  8. 

V. 

VanBuren,  Martin,  8,  55. 
VanEaton,  David,    16,  54,  55. 
VanHorn,  John,  16,  54. 
VanOsdell,'john  M.,  43. 
VanSicle,  Martin,  16,  53. 
VanSicle,  Almira,  53. 
VanStow,  David,  54. 
Vivier,  Rev.  Louis,  12. 

W. 

Wales,  Prince  of,  22. 

Walker,  Capt.  A.,  5. 

Walker,  Rev.  Jesse,  16,   18,  53,  55. 

Washington,   Gen.  George,  6,  9. 

Watkins,  Deborah  (Scott),  56. 

Watkins,  Samuel,  56. 

Wayne,  Gen.  Anthony,  8,  12,  22. 


Webster,  Daniel,  8. 
Weeks,  Cole,  16,  52. 
Welch,   Michael,    17,    19,  52,  54,  56. 
Wellmaker,  John,  54,  55. 
Wentworth,  Elijah,  sr.,  26,  51. 
Wentworth,  Elijah,  jr.,  26,  51. 
Wentworth,  George  P.,  54. 
Wentworth,  Hiram,  51. 
Wentworth,  John,  50. 
Whistler,  John,  7,  8,  10. 
Whistler,  William,  8. 
Wilkins,  William,  8. 
William  Penn  (steamboat),  5. 
Wilmette  [Ouilmette],    Antoine,   15, 

16,  52,  54,  56. 

Wilmette  [Ouilmette],  Elizabeth,  56. 
Winthrop,  Got'.  John,  19. 
Wolcott,  Alexander,   15,   18,  23,  50, 

Si,  54,  55- 

Woodbridge,  William,  8. 
Woodbury,  Levi,  8. 
Woodville,  N.  D.,  51. 
Wright,   Silas,  47. 
Wycoff,  Peter,  54,  55. 

Y. 

Young  Tiger  (schooner),  24. 


The  following  (Old  Settlers)  were  invited  by  Mr.  \Yent- 
worth,  and  occupied  seats  on  the  platform,  during  the  de- 
livery of  the  Lecture: 


Alexander    Beaubien. 
.Mark  Beaubien. 

Mrs.   Archibald  Clybourae. 
Benjamin  W.    Raymond. 

Huckner  S.    Morris. 
John  C.    Haines. 
Levi   I).    Boone. 
Isaac  L.   Milliken. 
Julian  S.    Rumsey. 
Hon.   Thomas  Hoyne. 
Col.   Gurdon   S.    Hubbard. 
Hon.  Samuel   Hoard. 
Mrs.  Samuel  Hoard. 
Dr.  Charles   V.    Dyer. 
Silas  B.    Cobb. 
Dr.  John   W.  Eldridge. 
Hon.    Isaac  X.    Arnold. 
Alexander   X.    Fullerton. 
John   C.    Rue. 
Socrates   Rand. 
Hon.  Grant  Goodrich. 
Major  E.    H.    Mulfnnl. 
Willis  Scott. 
-aftfca  M-   VanOsdell. 
Alanson   S.    Sherman. 
Agustine   I).    Taylor. 
Frederick  Tuttle. 
Charles  McDonnell. 
Hibbard    Porter. 
Edward    K.  Rodgers. 
Philo  Carpenter. 
lames   A.    Marshall. 
I.     C.    Paine   Freer. 
Alonxo   Huntington. 
Charles   Follansbee. 
William  Wheeler. 
George  Chacksfield. 
Col.   J.    M.    Warren. 
John   Bates. 
Tuthill   King. 
Josiah  C.   Goodhue,  Jr. 
Leonard  C.    Hugunin. 


Stephen  F.  Gale. 

Horatio  O.    Stone. 

Eli   S.    Prescott. 

Ezekiel  Morrison. 

Robert   Fergus. 

Mrs.  Robert  Fergus. 

Ed  ward  C.  Cleaver. 

Jabez  K.    Botsford. 

Arthur  G.    Burley. 

James  Couch. 

William  H.   Clarke. 

I  )r.  Valentine  A.    Boyer. 

William  B.    Snowhook. 

William    Eock. 

Henry  M.  Stowe. 

James  J.    Richards. 

D.    S.    Swett. 

James   B.    Bradwell. 

Robinson   Tripp. 

Eorin   P.    Hilliard. 

Alonzo  C.    Wood. 

John  Oliver. 

Mrs.   John  Calhoun. 

Mrs.    Robert  A.   Kinzie. 

Mrs.   Gen.  John   B.    Beaubien. 

Mrs.    William  H.    Brown. 

Mrs.    Henry  Rhines. 

Mrs.    George  W.    Snow. 

Mrs.    Stiles  Burton. 

Mrs.    George  Manierre. 

Mrs.   George  Davis. 

Mrs.    Ira  Couch. 

Mrs.  John  Murphy. 

Mrs.    Charles  Taylor. 

Mrs.    Dr.   John   Brinkerhoff. 

Mrs.    Francis  C.    Sherman 

Mrs.   Peter  L.    Updyke. 

Mrs.    Thomas  Church. 

Mrs.   William  B.   Egan. 

Mrs.  Jacob  Russell. 

Mrs.  John  B.   F.   Russell. 


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